Farm Law and Ag Law Blog

                    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

      (Note: This is part 5 of a 5-part series regarding the authors’ view that farm estate planning in this country is broken and needs fixed, especially in light of “Farm Estate Armageddon” that will happen this decade when ¼ of all farmers retire and 2/3 of all farmers will be over the age of 65.   Past articles can be viewed at www.farmlegacy.blogspot.com .               The year was 2007.   I was 2 years into practicing law and once a month my dad and I would meet with fellow farmers at a neighboring farm to discuss grain marketing.   A grain marketer, Steve, would facilitate the meetings.   For as long as I live, I will never forget a particular meeting when Steve showed up and passed out a packet of information that centered on the coming ethanol boom and how it would change things.   Steve looked at us and said “Boys, be glad you bought ground when you did”.   Steve also told us that we would all be raising just corn in the future as the ethanol demand would push corn con

     Traditional Method of Farm Succession Planning Broken…. Here is How to Fix it. Part IV-A Few LLCs Can Lead to Fairness. (Authors’ Note :   This will be a several part series discussing why the current method of farm estate and succession planning is not working)  This is part 4 of a 5-part series regarding the authors’ view that farm estate planning in this country is broken and needs fixed, especially in light of “Farm Estate Armageddon” which will happen this decade when ¼ of all farmers retire and 2/3 of all farmers will be over the age of 65.   Past articles can be viewed at www.farmlegacy.blogspot.com .               We’re going to pick up from where we left off in April discussing how to reach “fair” in establishing a farm succession plan.   If you recall, we discussed in detail that farming is generally an asset heavy industry, but light (or in some years none or even negative) on the yearly return from those assets.   We also discussed the fact that whatever asse