When examining the leasing option, a farm needs to decide, along with the landowner, whether they want to use a cash lease, a crop share lease, or a flexible cash lease.

Communicating is prudent for a tenant to provide updates of crop conditions throughout the year and make sure that crop shares and possible bonuses emanating from flexible cash leases are understood by both parties.

Switching from a fixed cash rent lease to a flexible cash rent lease allows a lower base rent to be established while simultaneously allowing landowners to share in relatively high crop revenues if they occur.

Most operators are interested in renting ground for a long period of time, so they are also interested in long-run productivity and the soil health of each tract of land that they farm.