Partial Farm Rental With Crop-Share Leases... Possible Landlord-Tenant Conflicts

The topic is partial farm rental with crop-share leases with possible landlord-tenant conflicts. Conflict results from the fact that the tenant furnishes all the labor and machinery, but only receives a portion of the crop. The tenant?s return from labor and machine time on share-rented land is, therefore, lower than from the same use on owned or cash-rented land. To equalize returns from alternative uses for his labor and machinery, the tenant finds it profitable to devote more hours to his owned or cash-rented land than to the cropshare-rented land. Not only does a crop-share lease as a part of an owned or cash-rented farm have the potential for landlord-tenant conflict, but it also tends to result in less efficient land use from the standpoint of society. The only way in which such a conflict could be avoided within the context of a crop-share lease would be for the landlord to share the labor and machinery input with the tenant in the same proportion as the crop is shared. Although this may be possible, it would complicate the rental arrangement and would tend to make the landlord a partner in the farming operation