AIR JANUARY 6, 1999

Thank you Mark and good morning everyone. More cold weather with the New Year just to prove that it’s winter, but at least a little moderation of late. Just a sneak preview as I wrap up the 1998 weather records. Believe it or not - December was 4 degrees above normal, 1998 was 2.1 degrees above normal and rainfall, as recorded at Milford Lake, was 6.6 inches above normal. An interesting year!

I want to follow up on my discussions last week about leases. Remember we’ve got the meeting on Land Values and Rental arrangements next Tuesday, January 12th at the 4-H/Sr. Citizens building starting at 7 p.m. Why do I harp so much on leases? Well, it’s probably because there are so many leases out there. A couple of years ago the over 3400 members of the Kansas Farm Management association were surveyed regarding their farming operations. At that time, and I doubt that it has changed much at all, 90% of all farmers utilized rented land. And on the average each farmer was dealing with 5 landlords. The people wonder why there is stress in farming. These do tend to be long term arrangements though. Average tenancy for the renter was 13 years and about 1/3 of all leases were with landowners related to the tenant - yet another reason for stress. Statewide 58% of leases were share leases. That surprised me a little, I’d expected it to be higher. 31% were cash leases, and the rest were a combination of cash and share. On the average the landlord was getting between 35 and 37% of the crop meaning that most leases were 1/3 - 2/3 but there were still some 40/60’s and others. Yet when you looked at how many landlords were paying for the various inputs it became real surprising. Landlords paid, and remember that all these are averages now, less than 30% of the fertilizer, anywhere from 20 -25% of the herbicide but less than 15% of the application. Now throw into that mix the growing usage of no-till farming practices, the drop in livestock prices, the drop in grain prices and the increases in land values and you can see that we’ve got the potential for some real messy inequities. You need to be talking to your landlord or tenant, on at least an annual basis and working through some of these leases. A good place to start would be that meeting on January 12th - hope to see you there!

This is Chuck Otte, County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook ’99.

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