Silence of the Lands
How often do you visit farmland throughout the year as an absentee owner (assuming the land is leased)? Once, twice, or never? And by visit, do you mean driving by or walking the fields or maybe a couple pics with your phone?
Why do you want to inspect your leased land each year? For starters, the soil surface will tell a story, without fancy technology, by just observing the landscape. There’s just one thing, and its REALY important…you (absentee landowner) must make TIME to inspect your farmland and if you don’t, then hire a trusted professional!
In future newsletters we will do a deep dive into some of the important aspects of landowner farmland inspections, but for starters, let’s go over some 3 main WHY’S.
First, WHY do you want to inspect your leased land? Mother nature is wielding its sword across the Midwest with large swings. Certain areas experience heavy rains, winds, or even drought and ALL of these impact your land. Yes, you have a tenant, and they are leasing the tillable land on a yearly or multi-year contract but as an absentee landowner you are ultimately responsible.
One example is soil erosion, which can negatively impact your future profitability. Eroded gullies can be impassable and sometimes must be fixed with heavy equipment which usually falls on the landowner. The BIG loss with erosion is topsoil, and it can take a hundred years to rebuild. The topsoil is the greatest ‘container’ for nutrients, microorganisms, and organic material. This all, can be observed with a visit and a walk across your land.
Second, WHY is it important to take pictures when you visit your farmland? If you come across an eroded gully, like the example above, TAKE a picture, or take lots of pictures! If you have the OnX Hunt app you can mark the GPS location with a picture and send it to your tenant for future discussion! Technology can help you document areas of concern with precise locations and allow you, your tenant, or an excavating company the information needed to find the spot for further investigation.
Taking pictures of the current crop in the spring and fall is also VERY important. This is a main topic for a future newsletter, however, let’s touch on one main aspect, spring crop pictures. Once the crop reaches a certain vegetative maturity, for example corn that’s shin high, you may be able to see wet areas of the field because the corn is shorter or not emerged at all. You may remember a conversation with your tenant last fall during negotiations about wet areas impacting yield at harvest. This is your cue to TAKE pictures and make note of this area because it may just be seasonal and have very little impact or like the tenant suggested yield impacting. Here is the crop records plug…look for these areas on the precision (harvest) yield maps, you “of course requested from your tenant” after harvest, RIGHT? Yes!! More crop records that will help you understand your total profitability!! You can see yield impact on precision yield maps with color differentials. Totally worth the walk and you are feeling better because you got your steps in!?
Thirdly, WHY can problems arise if you don’t inspect your land? The list is long and not exclusive. Two potential issues are poor weed control or potential spot issues. Poor weed control can impact certain crops more than others. Waterhemp is a major issue in soybeans and can be spread by harvesting equipment. If weeds are not controlled, it can lower yield, and in a Flex type contract, and could impact the Flex payment. In addition, spot issues can add up and be costly. For example, a blown-out drainage tile can erode a ditch edge, only visible by inspecting the outlet with the tall grass covering it. Tile should be inspected regularly and periodic inlet and outlet maintenance. Landowner drainage tile should be inspected every three years with annual tenant inspections with written documentation. Tile is expensive and if the initial cost doesn’t shock you, then spend some more unclogging a plugged tile!
In conclusion, absentee landowners need to figure out a way to visually inspect their property at least 2 times a year! An option is land management programs which conduct inspections for absentee landowners and write reports for documentation.
Author: Ben Tilberg is a Land Specialist & Realtor for Pifer's Land Management a division of Pifer's Auction & Realty