Farm Management: Frequently Asked Questions

Our farm managers have extensive experience in agriculture, land management, and business operations. Many hold degrees in agricultural sciences, agronomy, or farm management, and maintain industry certifications. They stay up to date with the latest, best practices in farm leasing, conservation, and sustainable land use to provide the highest level of service.

No, our farm managers do not physically farm the land. Instead, they oversee the management and operation of the farm, ensuring that it is farmed effectively and in alignment with your goals. They work closely with farm operators and input suppliers, monitor crop progress, manage lease agreements, and provide expert recommendations on farm improvements. On participating leases where the landowner receives a portion of the crop, they also market the crop on your behalf.

Hiring a professional farm manager brings expertise, objectivity, and local knowledge to your team. Working with your tenant, a farm manager can help make your farm more profitable on a crop share lease or custom arrangement. On a cash rent lease, a farm manager can help bring information and experience to share with your tenant to help him/her be even more profitable, which in turn will allow him/her to pay market rents. The farm manager will help keep your cash rent at market levels, so that you receive the return you deserve. In most instances, your net income after paying a farm manager will be equal to or greater than what you experienced without a manager, plus you are relieved of having to spend your time and energy to manage the property. This frees you up to spend more time doing the things you enjoy, confident that your farm asset is being well cared for.

A farm manager can start anytime of the year, but one of the best times is during the growing season, as it gives the farm manager and the farm operator a chance to get to know each other before crop inputs need to be purchased in the Fall, or cash rent needs to be negotiated.

Our farm managers visit your farm multiple times throughout the year, with frequency depending on lease type, the farm’s needs and the season. Routine visits include pre-season planning, in-season crop inspections, harvest and post-harvest evaluations. We also conduct additional visits as needed to address any concerns or issues that arise or to be present to help coordinate the completion of major repairs or improvements as needed.

Yes! As the landowner, you maintain control over major decisions regarding your farm. Our role is to provide expert recommendations and manage the day-to-day aspects of farm operations on your behalf. We work closely with you to ensure your goals, whether financial, conservation-focused, or legacy-driven, are met.

We conduct regular field visits, monitor crop progress, and provide you with detailed reports and updates throughout the year. Our farm managers work closely with operators to ensure proper field maintenance, soil health, and overall farm productivity. Additionally, we use technology such as soil tests, aerial imagery and yield data analysis to track farm performance.

Yes, we can work with your existing farm operator, provided they meet the standards and expectations necessary for the long-term success of your farm. Even if they don’t meet our standards, if you have other reasons that you wish to continue to work with your existing tenant, we will do so. We will make you aware of any concerns around their abilities or performance but will defer to you on the decision of whether to continue to work with your existing tenant, if that is your desire. Our goal is to maintain strong working relationships with operators while ensuring best farming practices are followed.

Certainly, we want to work as a team with you and your tenant, but you have to be the one who decides if you need a farm manager to join the team and represent your interests. While many tenants do a great job of looking out for your interests whenever they happen to align with their interests, it really isn’t reasonable to expect a tenant to represent your interests when they run counter to the tenant’s own interests. A farm manager can represent your interests while allowing your tenant to focus on his/her own. The farm manager can also share experiences and knowledge from other operations with your tenant. Working together can often make both the tenant’s operation and your operation even better. The best way to find out what a farm manager can bring to your team is to give us a trial run, which also allows your tenant to determine the value of working with us.

If you wish to change tenants, we can guide you through the process. We will evaluate prospective tenants, conduct interviews, and negotiate lease agreements to ensure you have a qualified operator who aligns with your objectives and the farm’s long-term sustainability.

Every farm is different and every farm owner has their own unique goals and objectives for their farm property. Our farm managers work with owners to help them determine which lease type provides the best opportunity for them to meet their goals and objectives. Having a no obligation meeting with one of our farm managers is a good step towards determining the right lease for you and your farm.

If your farm is operated under a participating lease, where you receive a portion of the crops grown, we will market your share of the crop on your behalf. Hertz has an in-house marketing committee made up of managers that have a passion for grain marketing. They use both fundamental and technical analysis to provide recommendations to all of our managers for trigger price levels or dates to market certain percentages of your crop. Grain marketing is one of the most emotional areas of farm management, making it difficult to do consistently well, but our marketing committee does a great job of providing recommendations that utilize a disciplined approach, taking a lot of the emotion out of the process and leading to outcomes that consistently beat the market average price.

Yes, we frequently work with multiple owners and often multiple generations on a farm, including siblings, children, grandchildren, cousins and other family members. We facilitate communication, help align ownership goals, and ensure all parties are informed about farm operations and financial performance. Our goal is to provide seamless management that respects the interests of all owners. We often provide continuity between generations that is difficult to duplicate any other way.

One of our objectives as a farm manager is to help you transition your farm assets to the next generation. We help provide continuity during the process and can often help you work through all the different options to arrive at a transition plan that best fits your family’s objectives. We are proud of the fact that we have helped a large number of families transition their farm assets through more than one and often more than two generations. A farm is a tremendous family legacy, and we enjoy helping families care for and transition this important family asset.