Trends in Farmland Crop Share Leases in Iowa
- Brooke Bouma Kohlsdorf
- May 9
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
When a 531-acre farm in central Iowa sold at auction in early April, it was the end of an era for one family who knew the land well. Jerome Monahan and his parents farmed the Greene County property for nearly 50 years, not as owners but tenants.
Monahan told American Farmland Owner, “We had a crop share agreement, and you don’t see many of those anymore.”
Monahan and the owner, Coleen Janssen -- who passed away in 2024 -- split the input expenses and the crop earnings in half, sharing both the risk and the reward each year. They used this model instead of a flat-fee rental amount. Monahan says this kind of agreement is pretty rare today. But when his father was farming in the 70s, it wasn’t that uncommon.
Crop Share Leases Used Less Often in Iowa
Iowa’s agricultural landscape is experiencing shifts in leasing arrangements, particularly crop share leases. The 2022 Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey was conducted by Iowa State University to find out more about current leasing practices.
According to interviews with 359 landowners:
7% of all acres had a crop share agreement.
12% of all leased land fell under a crop share agreement.
From 2012 to 2022, crop share leases fell from 12% of all acres in Iowa to 7%.
This is a significant shift from 40 years ago when leased farmland was equally divided between cash rent and crop share leases in 1982.
According to the study, the typical 50-50 crop share is still the predominant form of crop share leased acres. For 80% of all acres under a crop share arrangement, landowners split equally with tenants on costs like seed, fertilizer, herbicides, and insecticides.
Prevalence of Lease Types
According to the same Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey:
58% of Iowa farmland is leased.
Among these leases, 72% are fixed cash rent agreements.
13% are variable cash rent leases (rent adjusts as yields or prices fluctuate).
7% are traditional crop share arrangements.
Why Crop Share is Declining
According to the authors of the survey, there are trends worth noting that play a role in how land is leased. They reflect one trend happening nationally as farmland owners are getting older.
1. Aging Landowners
Two-thirds of farmland is owned by people 65 years of age or older, and 37% of farmland is owned by people 75 and older. The numbers show how dramatically numbers have changed over four decades: 29% of Iowa farmland was owned by people 65 years or older in 1982.
2. Shifts in Farm Management Trends
84% of Iowa farmland is owned free of debt, which represents a significant increase from 62% in 1982.
46% of farmland is owned by women, and 13% is owned by female landowners over 80.
There is a continuous shift away from sole ownership and joint tenancy to trusts, corporations, and LLCs.
55% of Iowa farmland is owned by someone who does not currently farm, and 53% of the non-farming owners do not have farming experience.
20% of Iowa farmland is owned by someone who is not an Iowa resident, an increase from 13% in 2017. Of the non-resident landowners, 70% do not have farming experience.
Economic Considerations:
According to Ag Decision Maker, an agriculture newsletter put out by Iowa State University Extension, there is also more risk associated with crop share leases that require landowners to share in the operational costs and risks associated with farming.
In contrast, cash rent leases provide a fixed income, making them more attractive to landowners seeking stable returns without the complexities of farm management. Many fixed cash rents are not renegotiated each year. This results in a more stable, but slightly lower, average rent over time.
RELATED: This shows the importance of having a farm succession plan.
