Landowners, tenants invited to respond to 2021 MO rental rate survey

Landowners lease roughly 35% of Missouri crop, pasture, and woodland acreage to renters every year. Rented acreage has increased in recent years as more land has transitioned to the next generation, interest rates have incentivized land investments and interest in carbon markets and working land conservation has developed.

To provide information that Missourians can use when negotiating land rental rates, University of Missouri researchers invite Missouri landowners, farmers, ranchers and hunters to participate in the 2021 Missouri rental rate survey.

“Every producer wants to know three things: what the weather is going to do, the future price of grain or livestock and what is the going rate for land. This assessment helps with the latter,” said Ben Brown, extension economist with the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. “Our job at University of Missouri Extension is to provide information relevant to today’s farm managers, hunters, ranchers and landowners. We are able to do that through the cooperation of Missourians who participate in projects such as this Missouri rental rate survey.”

The survey collects rental agreement information for cropland, pasture, woodland hunting, building and facility rental, hay ground, livestock stocking rates and future expectations. The results will be published in the Missouri Agricultural Rental Rate Summary, which Missourians can access online at extension.missouri.edu or from a local MU Extension Center.

You can complete the anonymous survey in 5 to 10 minutes. To participate electronically, go to bit.ly/MissouriRentalRates21. If you’d rather respond to the survey on paper, then visit your local MU Extension Center to pick up a paper copy.

“As a producer, having this aggregated information of local markets allows me to compare my management practices to other producers’ practices,” said Doug James, who raises corn, soybeans and cattle in Missouri. “In today’s agricultural environment, the applied farm management information supplied by the University of Missouri is crucial to the many business decisions I have to make.”

Hunters may also use the survey results summary to gauge an appropriate rate to pay for hunting privileges. Mid-Missouri hunter Jack Winn said, “Hunting lease evaluation includes land quality, habitat viability, contract specifications and available species. The Missouri Agricultural Rental Rate Summary provides guidance as a tenant when assessing hunting leases.”

If you have questions about how to use the rental rate summary to make decisions about a rental agreement, then contact an MU Extension specialist for assistance.

“Accurate rental rate summaries give us as educators information regarding local markets to assist both tenants and landowners in this very important decision,” said Karisha Devlin, agricultural business field specialist with MU Extension.