Summary
With the harvest season behind us, the focus now moves to the planning for the season and years ahead. Keeping and renewing leases is a critical part of most farming operations. If you are one of the farms that manages this process manually or using a spreadsheet, you know how time-consuming it is and the risks of things falling through the cracks which can have a long-term impact on your relationship with your landowner. Today's technology allows for automation of a lot of these tasks at a fraction of the cost, saving you time, preventing things from being forgotten or omitted, and eventually helping you build a nurturing relationship with your landowner.
Challenge
According to the USDA 80% of rented land is owned by non-operator landlords, who in many cases lack farming experience. Additionally, 20% of the land is owned by absentee landlords. Whatever the context you operate in, effective communication between landowners and farmers forms the backbone of a fruitful and long-lasting relationship. Yet many of us struggle with how best to manage this aspect of our business.
Use of Technology
In today’s high-inflation environment leading to higher farmland rental rates and land prices, increasing busy-ness of today’s farmers, and with an increasing share of absentee landowners, keeping healthy relationships with them can be a challenge. Additionally, with land ownership passing onto the next generation, which is more digitally savvy, using technology tools help position your farm business as modern and forward-thinking. Finally, the use of technology helps create a digital trail that helps with matters related to succession planning, and historical yields and avoids any misgivings. Technology tools that help automate that critical part of the farm can help you focus on things that are core to your business. Technology can help producers to 1) stay better organized; 2) Save time and effort; 3) Prevent things from falling between the cracks; and 4) Retain acres over time. These are time-consuming activities and working with a technology tool that is able to synthesize all of the best practices across the country and deliver the best value for your landowner can really help ease the burden.
Oaken’s set of tools helps not just digitize your interactions but also integrates several business benefits for your landowners. Additionally, our unique set of upcoming partnerships will help you create value with your landowners in areas such as taxes, carbon credits, grants, and alternate energy. Click here to start the conversation.
