Leasing Pasture

It’s basically two local land owners, neither of which wanted to expand their operation, or couldn’t expand their operation on their own. They just didn’t have the human resources or the facilities to pull it off and so in order to expand their ranch capacity, they partnered together. They pooled their resources and it’s working […]

If you want to start or expand your farming operation, making contact with a landowner is one of the first steps. Here are some tips about making that all important good first impression.

Good question! And one I’ve been asked quite often. One good place to start is at the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. NASS is the federal agency tasked gathering and reporting the facts on American agriculture for people working in and depending on the industry. In addition to a Census of Agriculture every five years, […]

We all prefer trusting and being trustworthy, but sometimes things just don’t work out without a contract of some sort to clarify expectations. Here are some examples of problems that could have been prevented by having more than a handshake.

Custom graziers and herd owners both need to be very careful when choosing to work with one another. It’s difficult to put together a deal with stability and longevity, mostly for interpersonal relations reasons. Both parties should ask around about their potential business partner. I don’t ask for references, because people only use for references […]

Strong, written contracts can prevent some of the Boneheaded Business Blunders I made in my early years of ranching. My previous two articles have covered every brutally specific detail that I should have included in my former land lease contracts. This month I’m running down everything that needs to be in a custom grazing contract. […]

Over the last few months, my Boneheaded Beef Business Blunders articles have related how I’ve been burned by ineffective land lease and custom grazing contracts. As a result, I’ve changed what I include in contracts. Here in Part 2 I share the rest of the topics I am now including in my lease contracts along […]

Current corn prices along with reduced availability of perennial pasture have some producers asking about the economics of turning cropland into forage for cow/calf operations. So three Nebraska Extension specialists. Jay Parsons, Mary Drewnoski, and Daren Redfearn, got together to answer these questions in a February webinar: “Will producing annual forages provide greater net returns […]

Do you rent pasture? What happens if drought lowers pasture production below expectations? Specifically, what does your pasture lease say about drought? It’s hard to think about drought in at the beginning of spring, but drought can play havoc on pasture leases. All too often, pasture leases fail to include an appropriate plan to adjust […]

For the third and final confession in my Boneheaded Beef Business Blunders series, I want to cover land lease and custom grazing contracts. I got myself into some sticky situations in my early years of ranching, due to assuming too much. In the past my land lease contracts have fit on one printed page with […]

January 2018 makes it four and a half years that Rhinestone Cattle Company has been in the grassfed beef business. I started out with a 7-acre leased pasture and intentions to stocker three calves for a summer, then grow through retained profits. Since then I have managed a maximum herd of 120 head, leased over […]

A successful, long-term farm tenure arrangement between farmer and non-farming landowner depends on good communication, and can help you decide whether or not you, as the leasee can realistically meet the non-farming landowner’s goals and expectations, and whether or not the land can realistically meet your goals and expectations. Good communication can also be used […]

“Special Collections” is a new menu item we added recently. It’s where you can find collections of articles that readers ask for or search for over and over. Since folks want to know about leasing and how to do it, we’ve collected all the articles we’ve published so far on the topic in this Special […]

We have had very good results with keeping long land leases by focusing on keeping good landlord relationships. This article is going to review our practices that have been very successful in keeping our leased land. I will also review some of the mistakes that we have made in the past that resulted in us […]

When times get tough, the tough start…thinking differently. Kit shares some things to keep in mind when building a new cattle business or keeping your current operation profitable.