816—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 15,1983 High price to pay for rented land Farmers and landlords often wonder what is a fair price for the rental of farmland. Many times, a farmer who’s been tilling the same ground for years suddenly realizes that a neighbor has paid a little more rent and has stolen away a parcel of ground that he was counting on. And so the next year he’s supposed to pay a little more and steal it back. And too often landlords feel they’re at the mercy of area far mers who pay them less than the going rate for the use of their acres. It’s easy for misunderstandings and hard feelings to develop in this environment of mystery and in trigue. And the question has to be asked, “Is there a better way?” A growing phenomena, one that was unheard of a few years back, may hold some interest for far mers and landlords. And it may be a disaster for both. It’s called a cash-rent auction. Here’s an example: An airport authority in Bloomington, Illinois owned a 384-acre farm and it wanted to get the best possible price for its use. So it held a cash rent auction. Wes Kinfidon bid the price up to $209 an acre for a one year lease on the parcel. The large crowd that gathered to SPECIAL PRESEASON PRICES on ALPINE 9-18-9 liquid plant food. Available with all white phosphoric acid at no extra cost. $2.75 PER GALLON Other analysis available Contact Vkfl Alpine Plant Foods Ltd. your S7I Box 730 nearest UjLJ New Hamburg, Ont. NOB 2GO representative ALPINE' (519) 662-2352 QUARRYVIILE Edwin Martin UTHZ Paul Zimmerman 717 786 2815 717 733 7674 EAST GREENVILLE lames Landis ORANGEVILLE Clyde Bartholomew 215 679 2682 717 784 1779 Ingenious Wood/Eoal Boilers A.R. FLAUD SALES TimberEze Distributor RD #2 Honeybrook, Pa. 19344 For More Information Call 215-273-3211 Dealership Inquiries Welcome Jerry Webb watch the proceedings probably thought be was crazy he paid too much. He couldn’t possibly make any money. But in Kingdon’s mind, he had no choice. The Gridley, Illinois farmer had lost his lease on another farm that he had tilled for 11 years. He had checked with everyone he could think of and couldn’t find anymore land. And so the cash-rent auction was his last hope. He already had the machinery and he still wanted to farm. So to him being the top bidder on that airport parcel was extremely important. It was more a matter of loss-minimizing than it was of profit-maximizing. Because without it, his machinery would stand idle and he would be unemployed. In local terms, $209 an acre rent is too much. There just isn’t any way to make money at that price. The more productive Illinois farmland offers a little hope, but certainly no assurance of even breaking even. And observers said the auction was a high risk en deavor that can only work against other farmers who are renting land. They’re afraid landowners will see this high price and con sider it the norm, thus raising their own rent beyond the sights of sensible, profit-minded farmers. Atl \ NOW, AVAILABLE...WOOD AND COAL BURNING BOILERS, HOTAIR FURNACES AND FIRE PLACE INSERTS. You can now heat your entire home with wood or coal and since this is an addon boiler, you can use your present energy source gas. electric, oil or solar, as desired, when not using wood or coal the less costly fuels during (rigid weather Farm Talk raw FEATURES: • Non-jamming in termeshing heavy duty cast iron grates • Automatic dual draft system • Designed and built to comply with the ASME code • Firebrick lined • Insulated jacket • 12 and 19 gallon reservoir gallon reservoir • Wine color finish Farm auctions are a tradition they’ve gone on forever. And most see them as a way of establishing a proper price. If you stand around a farm auction where they’re selling machinery and livestock even land you can observe some items selling for less than they’re worth, some perhaps for more than they’re worth, and some about right. And, in general, the attitude is that an auction is a fair way to sell things. ' Buy many farmers are saying < that in fact it is not a fair way to ! rent land. That it brings together , the desperate and die foolish, competing for an almost intangible , product. All they’re actually 1 buying is the use of a piece of ground, with the most desperate or most foolish among them offering the highest reward. From another point of view, it must be said that renting your farm to the highest bidder could be a disaster. A landlord that cares anything at all about his land would surley be concerned with farming practices and the renter’s view on conservation and soil erosion, crops to be grown, and perhaps most importantly, will the renter be able to make the payments? At another cash-rent auction in Illinois, a farmer bid $245 an acre, but then after the auction wasn’t able to meet the credit requirements. So the deal fell through and the cash-rent had to be re-auctioned a few months later. That time, the land went for about $2OO an acre. Another example of the ab surdity of such a situation in Missouri a farm’s cash-rent went on the auction block and out-of state farmers won out, with the soybean ground going to farmers in Illinois and the wheat ground being rented by a Kansas farmer. If you know your geography, you must realize that one or both of those farmers will be hauling equipment hundreds of miles to till that Missouri farm. Cash-rent farming to the highest bidder spells disaster for everyone. First off, for the tenant who is going to lose money on his farming efforts and hasten his & EVERY WEDNESDAY IS DAIRY AT NEW HOLLAND SALES STABLES, INC. 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He’s most likely to cut every corner possible because he’s .already spent too much for the land. When things don’t pan out he’ll probably be unable to pay his production expenses. That’s trouble for lots of other people. It’s unlikely that he’ll rent it again next year. That could mean another cash-rent auction, another desperate farmer winning the right to try again, and another round of disasters. While the short-range income potential could be beneficial for the landowner, in the long run he could wind up with a worn out, tom up and generally worthless piece erf ground. Obviously, a progression of over-extended, highest bidders will do nothing to improve his soil or control erosion. A farm is not a warehouse and cannot be treated as such. You can’t simply pay the rent and pile your stuff inside until such time as the lease runs out. A farm is a living thing that mu<rf be treated Farm ponds pose winter LANCASTER Farm ponds provide many forms of recreation such as fishing, boating, swim ming or ice skating. “Proper precautions must be taken to in sure that these happy activities do not become tragedies”, reports Duane E. Pysher, district con servationist of the U.S. Soil Con servation Service. “Freezing of ponds will even tually occur this winter, and if ice skating takes place on your pond you should follow a few simple rules,” adds Pysher. —Make sure the ice has frozen to a safety depth of 6 to 8 inches before skating is allowed. Remember new ice is much stronger than ice which has par tially thawed and then refrozen. —Locate thin ice areas which usually occur near the overflow pipe or where spring flows or accordingly by people who un derstand it and care about it. It can't be totally automated and it can’t be dealt with as an inanimate object that is always there. It must be tended as you would tend livestock, with each individual field even areas within a field requiring special knowledge and treatment. It might be nice from the stand point of total food production if agriculture could be handled like a great big factory, with food coming off an assembly line in neat little packages and being loaded into shiny little trucks. But it doesn’t work that way. We’ve already proven time and time again that agriculture belongs in the hand of those who care about it. I think the same thing holds true for farmland, and it seems unlikely that the highest Udder in a cash-rent auction is going to concern himself with the long-range productivity and well being of that farm. danger streams enter the pond. Mark these thin areas after you have located them. Following these 2 basic rules should insure you a safe skating season. However, do not forget to provide rescue equipment at the pond in the event of an ice break. Keep a long plank or ladder and a rope at the pond’s edge to make a rescue. Never go out on thin ice to make a rescue without sliding along a ladder or plank. Also, take the rope with you. Chances are these items will never be needed, but if they are, make sure they are there and everyone knows how to properly use them. The precautions taken to make ice skating safe should extend to all other activities performed on your pond at other times of the year. “Make your pond safe year round,” urges Pysher. CONTACT US For MANURE HANDLING EQUIPMENT Semi' and Liquid Spreaders • Ground Driven - Easy Running Priced Reasonably PIT ELEVATORS ALLIS CHALMERS AND WISCONSIN POWER UNITS COMPACT ROTO BEATERS HYD. POWERED BARNYARD SCRAPERS - EXCELLENT FOR GRADING - SNOW REMOVAL PLATE SHEARING & PRESS BRAKE WORK SMUCKER WELDING & MANUFACTURING 2110 Rockvale Road lane., PA 17602 PH: (717) 687-9198
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