Cass County Extension is hosting an informational meeting on farmland leasing topics on Wednesday evening, August 7th. The meeting is first in a series of nine across Southwest Iowa, offered by new ISU Extension Farm Management Specialist Patrick Hatting. Landowners and tenants can improve their knowledge of current leasing issues during the annual farmland leasing meetings, being held statewide beginning in late July. More than 80 meetings will be held, led by farm management specialists with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Each meeting will take the form of a three-hour workshop designed to assist landowners, tenants and other agribusiness professionals with current issues related to farmland ownership, management and leasing arrangements.

The meeting in Cass County will be held at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic beginning at 6:30 PM on August 7th. Registration Fee for the meeting is $20/person, or $30 per couple if sharing a leasing resource book. Topics will include trends in land values and rental rates, conservation issues, farm bill topics, and a look at the year ahead. Participants will receive a 100-page workbook with resources such as surveys, example lease agreements and termination forms, and a multitude of other publications that will help answer common questions, and possibly spark new ideas. Pre-registration is required by Monday August 5th to ensure you will get a booklet. You can call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132 or stop in to get registered.

Melissa O’Rourke, farm management specialist in Northern Iowa with ISU Extension and Outreach says “We’ve seen an increasing need for farmland owners and producer-tenants to have more conversation about the cost of crop inputs as well as reasonable expectations on profit margins. ISU Extension has good resources to help people consider how input costs can be considered in setting cash lease rates, and the workshops will show how those can be used.” According to O’Rourke, the volatility of commodity markets has led to increased inquiries regarding both fixed and flexible cash lease methodologies.

One of the challenges that Iowa landowners and tenants continue to face is the knowledge gap that can exist with modern production agriculture. “We have more aging landowners, and landowners who have never farmed themselves – many of these have inherited land from farming parents,” O’Rourke said. “Together with the producers, we try to educate the parties to understand factors to be taken into account on setting rent and farmland management consideration.”

A listing of all ISU Extension offices hosting meetings statewide is available online, with additional information available through the Ag Decision Maker website at www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/info/meetings.html. The Ag Decision Maker leasing section also provides useful materials for negotiating leases, information on various types of leases, lease forms and newly updated Decision Tools. For more information about the workshop, or to register, visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass, stop by the Cass County Extension Office, or call (712) 243-1132.