Know your Rights When Dealing with Termination of an Oral Farm Lease.
If I did not farm, or was oblivious to grain prices, there would be one barometer that I could rely on to know what the price of grain is doing, and that is how many phone calls I get regarding oral farm leases and the timing necessary to terminate them. Every time grain prices go up, I get numerous calls from farmers who have been farming a piece of land under an oral lease, only to find out that the landlord has decided to lease to someone who will pay a higher price. Because oral leases are somewhat akin to the wild, wild west, the question always asked is whether or not termination was timely given, properly given, and if either did not occur, what are the farmer’s rights. In spite of the mantra of “get it in writing” that we are all told, I would venture to guess that at least a quarter, maybe upwards of half, of farm rental agreements are oral. Most times, farmers have been farming the same land for many years and things have g