Building a solid foundation for a long-term professional relationship with your landowners is key to pulling through tough years like this one. It all starts with basic communication.
Roger Fry of Benton County, Ind., says that the work you put in to communicating with your landowners and keeping them in the loop on your decisions helps cultivate an honest and open environment. This is key when a major event takes place, such as the next generation assuming ownership of the land.
“What you’ve done prior to those situations has created that environment,” Fry says. “That is multiple conversations a year.”
Lay the foundation
To initiate conversations throughout the year, Fry recommends inviting your landowner to tag along for a meeting with your agronomist or for a ride in the tractor while you’re planting. Simple gestures like that can build trust and make it easier to approach the landowner with requests you may have later down the road.
For example, if you think their land may benefit from tile, then you can feel more comfortable approaching them with that request, more so than if you only touch base once a year.
“That open-door conversation is so much easier now when you’re asking someone to spend money for a tile project or for any other type of project,” Fry says. “If you just walk in and say, ‘Hey, I want you to spend this money’ and don’t have that open-door concept, it is a difficult conversation.”
Part of creating that open-door relationship may involve sharing the risks and rewards of farming with the landowner through a flexible lease arrangement. In doing this, you keep them involved in what’s happening throughout the cropping year, and they become invested in wanting to raise a profitable crop.
“All of the people that we work with take a vested interest in what we do and what is going on when they have a hand in the game,” Fry says. “I get calls all the time asking, ‘Did it rain?’ ‘How much rain did we get?’ ‘How does it look?’”
Another way that Fry builds trust with his landowners is by disclosing more information than what is typically shared. More specifically, he shares details about the returns on the property to keep all parties on the same page. It keeps an open line of communication, and it puts everything on the table. It removes the fear that your landowner will talk with other landowners and perhaps believe they could bring in more dollars elsewhere. Everything has already been put out in the open.
“They’re very well informed when they are in those environments,” Fry says.
Difficult situations
Creating that comfortable environment, where communication flows both ways, also makes conversations just a bit easier when navigating more complex waters. For example, if a landowner dies, their heirs may have trust and confidence in you if they know you had a strong relationship with their loved one.
In those situations, Fry will share the experiences he had with the original landowner, and he will be open about what a lease arrangement will look like if they choose to continue that agreement. He attributes his ability to get through those tough conversations to the solid foundation that already has been built with the previous landowner.
“Transition is very difficult in any aspect of business or farming,” Fry says. “To be able to have that open conversation and sit down at the table during those tough times is important. It is possible because we had an open door where we talk more than once a year.”