Ag Land Pricing, Contracts & Farm Management

Land rental values

Non-irrigated cropland rent averaged $151.00 per acre in Wisconsin during 2023, an increase of $6.00 from 2022 according to the latest report released by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Cash rent paid for pasture in Wisconsin averaged $37.50 per acre in 2023, an increase of $1.50 from 2022. Lafayette County had the highest published average cash rent for non-irrigated cropland, at $259.00 per acre, followed by Grant County, at $241.00 per acre. Brown, Dane, and Walworth rounded out the top five. Rock had the highest published pasture cash rent at $76.50 per acre, followed by Lafayette at $69.50 per acre.

Full Report: Cash Rent Value by County, WI Agriculture Statistics Service 2023.

Cash Rental Value by County, 2022 and Cash Rental Values by County, WI 2021

Custom rates

The Custom Rate Guide is a summary of a mail survey that collected rates paid by Wisconsin farmers who hired custom work, custom operators and farmers who performed custom work, and machinery dealers who rented out equipment for field operations including manure services, tillage, planting, fertilizer & chemical application, harvest operations, and machinery rental.

Agricultural leasing

Ag Lease 101, created by the North Central Farm Management Extension service, helps both land owners and land operators learn about alternative lease arrangements and includes sample written lease agreements for several alternatives. Download a Wisconsin Farm Lease example and read specific information about what you should know about farm leases in the Articles section below.

What makes for a fair, robust, and resilient ag or farm lease agreement? This web meeting includes an example dialog between land/farm owner and renter as they negotiate the specific details of a lease agreement, highlighting important resources, tools and considerations to inform a resilient and robust agreement that serves both parties. Click here to view the video series from the December Farm Management Friday webinar.

Farm Management

Agreements and Contracts

Farm Lease Law 101 (2 pages)
Flexible Rental Contracts for Farmland (1 pages)
Sharemilking in the Midwest (18 pages, 88.1 kB)
Pasture Lease – Grazing Agreement (3 pages, 22.43 KB)
Cash Farm Lease (8 pgs)
Cash Farm Lease (6 pages, 62.33 KB)
Cash Farm Lease with Flexible Provisions (4 pages, 2.14 MB)
Crop – Share or Crop – Share Cash Farm Lease (4 pages, 301.98 KB)
Farm Building or Livestock Facility Lease (4 pages, 311.34 KB)
Sample Manure Agreement (5 pages, 54.63 KB)

Rental Forms and Agreements

Following Rental Forms are in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format. Free download of adobe software can be found at: www.adobe.com

Sharemilking Agreement (18 pages, 88.1 KB)
Pasture Lease – Grazing Agreement (3 pages, 22.43 KB)
Rental agrements forFarm Machinery, equipment & buildings Lease (4 pages, 133 KB)
Fixed Cash Rent Lease(8 pages, 149.10 KB)
NEW – Land Lease Contract and Fact Sheet (5 Pages, 58.4 KB)

Disaster Planning

Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures – EPA
**October 21st, 8:30-9:30 AM – UWEX Webinar about this topic = contact your local Extension office to sit in**