Farmland Lease Calculator: Cash Rent vs Crop Share

Cash rent or crop share: which lease pays more, and for whom?

Enter the yield, price and costs you expect and the terms on the table. It shows what the landlord and the operator each end up with under a cash rent, a crop share and a flexible cash lease, the yield where the share starts to beat the cash rent, the range of cash rents both sides could accept, and a grid of good and bad years.

Planning arithmetic on numbers you type in.

1. The field and the crop

Acres in the lease

Expected yield per acre (bushels)

Expected price per bushel ($)

2. Costs per acre

Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, drying and hauling ($/acre)

Machinery, labor, fuel, insurance and interest the operator always pays ($/acre)

3. Lease terms

Cash rent ($/acre)

Landlord's crop share (%)

Landlord's share of the seed, fertilizer and chemical costs under the crop share (%)

Flex lease base rent ($/acre)

Flex bonus on revenue above the threshold (%)

Flex revenue threshold ($/acre)

4. What the operator needs

Profit the operator must keep ($/acre)

Questions people ask

Is cash rent or a crop share better for the landlord?

Neither always wins. Cash rent is a fixed amount whatever the crop does. A crop share pays more in a good year and less in a bad one, and the landlord also pays a share of inputs. The tool finds the yield above which the share pays the landlord more than the cash rent, at the price and costs you enter.

Why would an operator prefer a crop share?

A share shifts part of the yield and price risk to the landlord and cuts the cash the operator needs up front, because the landlord pays a share of seed, fertilizer and chemicals. The operator gives up upside in a good year. The grid shows the operator's worst and best result under each lease.

What is a flexible cash lease?

A base rent plus a bonus when revenue rises above a threshold, often based on yield times a price. It sits between cash rent and a crop share. The tool takes the base, the bonus percentage and the revenue threshold you negotiate.

What do the negotiation numbers mean?

The first is the highest cash rent the operator can pay and still keep the profit you set per acre at the expected yield. The second is the cash a landlord would need to receive to match the crop share at the same yield. If the first is lower, no cash rent satisfies both sides at these numbers.

Is this legal, tax or farm-management advice?

No. It is arithmetic on numbers you type in. It does not know your county rents, your insurance, government payments, tax treatment or state lease law. Use extension-office rent surveys for local figures and talk to an attorney before signing a lease.

Not decided

Government payments, crop insurance indemnities, property tax and other owner costs, depreciation, landlord-owned improvements, tax treatment of each lease type, lease length and renewal terms, state lease and termination law, and who pays for drying, hauling or storage unless you put it in the costs. The defaults are placeholders, not any county's or year's figures: replace each with your own records and local rent surveys.