Our Land
We lovingly care for the land we farm whether it's our own or rented. We strive to adopt the latest agronomic practices to improve our productivity and to nurture the earth. We have adopted notill farming and constantly challenge ourselves to learn better and more sustainable ways of farming.
Owned
We have built a strong farming base through the purchase of land in our area. This has proven to be a good investment for us and insures our continuity into the future. We continue to look for opportunities to expand here in Rice county through additional land purchases.
Rented
We are fortunate to have a number of landowners that have also entrusted us with their land to farm. Several are relatives, including Lee's parents, siblings, and some second cousins. Others, though not related, have become an extended family to us over the years.
Our landowners live from coast to coast (Maine to California; Wisconsin to Texas) and in nearby Lyons, KS, as well as many places in between. These are examples of the typical rental arrangements we have with them.
- Most of the cropping is done on share crop arrangements whereby we, as tenants, supply the machinery, labor, management, etc. and the landowners provide the land. We share some of the variable inputs (such as fertilizer) and share the harvested crops on a percentage basis. The most common crop sharing arrangement in our area is 1/3 to landowner and 2/3 to tenant.
- Some of our land is cash rented from landowners for a fixed amount of money each year. All of our grassland is rented on this basis.
- We try to communicate with our landowners several times per year. This web site is our newest venture into communication opportunities. We usually exchange Christmas greetings to keep up with each other's families. We correspond when cropping plans are made, harvest reports are completed or other events seem important enough to share. Yield maps created while harvesting are available to interested parties by contacting us. We hope many of our landowners will visit this site to see "what's new on the farm."