Luke Byers, Crop Production Agent
The most common questions we receive in the River Valley Extension District’s agriculture programs are about land leasing arrangements. In order to provide our clients with the most accurate and reliable information about land leasing arrangements in the area, we conduct a biannual survey to track lease arrangement status and trends As of December 16th, our Agricultural Land Lease Survey is available to be completed by farm operators and landowners
This year’s survey is divided into several sections covering cropland, pasture, grazing stubble or cover crops, and custom farming. This year’s survey has been arranged so that participants will be able to share information on multiple kinds of leases from each section (e.g., cash vs. crop share, or per acre vs. per head, etc.). Sharing information on multiple kinds of leases will provide us with more robust figures that will make our final results more accurate. As usual, we do not ask for any personal information and all submissions are kept strictly confidential.
The survey is available in multiple formats. Paper copies have been disbursed to many landowners and farm operators after December 16th, and additional copies are available upon request. A digital option will also be made available on the River Valley Extension District website, www.rivervalley.k-state.edu. Surveys can be submitted in person or mailed to any of the local extension offices, or they can be scanned and emailed to either Luke Byers at lsbyers@ksu.edu or Kaitlyn Nelson at khildebrand@ksu.edu. Both Luke and Kaitlyn are also more than happy to come and visit you on your farm to help you fill out the survey at your convenience.
We ask that all surveys be submitted to one of the local extension offices by Friday, January 17th, 2024, so if you plan to send your survey in the mail, please postmark it a few days earlier than the deadline. Luke Byers and Kaitlyn Nelson will be hosting a summary meeting on Thursday evening, January 23rd, 2024, at The Branch in Clyde to review the survey results and discuss land leasing strategies and statutes with area producers and landowners; this date is shortly before the statutory deadline for landowners and operators to make changes to oral land leases Hors d-oeuvres will be served at the meeting as well. We hope that many of you from across the four counties in our district will join us in delivering leasing data that you can trust. If you have any questions, please contact Luke Byers office at (785) 632-5335 or Kaitlyn Nelson at (785) 325-2121.
