Details for Exploring Your Options to Expand Your Farm Operation: Renting, Crop Sharing or Custom Farming

Consider a gross margin share to offer more upside to your land owners while not getting over committed to lose inducing payments in a lower margin environment.

Long term, renting or buying into the land will be more stable and enhance returns. Short term, custom work is a great way to help you afford bigger, newer equipment until you can grow your own farm into the equipment line.

Those are two very different models. Custom farm is straight business service. You are only as big as the number of customers. It does not create an interest in the land like a tenancy (cash or crop share rent).

Custom farming is lower risk for sure, but less potential upside? More retiring land owners certainly seem to like crop sharing due to the benefits of being seen as still actively farming to CRA, but they won’t like the return during drought years.

Custom farming is more profitable