How to find land for rent?

I want to rent a few acres of cropland, to experiment with growing annual staple crops. For this purpose, I don't need buildings on the land, just bare land. How would I go about looking for this? All the land search sites online seem to focus on land for sale, not land for rent.

Does anyone here rent cropland? How does it work?

You may want to drive around and look for land spaces that are open and not being used for anything. If things around it look good (as far as no factories or other types of questionable undertakings that could affect the quality of the soil/air/water for that land), you could find out who owns it, get in touch with them, and ask about you leasing the land or at least a part of it, depending on the size you are looking for. I would want at least a 3 year lease, if possible, before I would start putting in the labor to get the land ready for growing food. The cost could just be some of the food you successfully grow. I know of someone who did that, except they were looking for land to purchase to build a house on. They had been looking on all the "For Sale" sites without finding what they were looking for. So they just drove around, found land that really spoke to them, looked up who owned it, and asked if they would consider selling it. That was about 2 years ago and they now have their house built on their dream property- all without it ever having been officially on the market! Sometimes one just has to step a bit out of the box, I suppose, and get creative.

Pretty much how Annie said to do so.

I noticed an uptick in people stopping by and asking about an old farmhouse I own of my late-grandmother and thirty acres that comes with it. If someone stopped by at the right time, and was someone I trusted, I would rent it out, but it is not advertised nor would I ever do that. I am not alone in that advertisement brings out the crazies I swear.

GIS is a great tool, depending on the county you are interested in you can use it to look for large tracks of land on big plots and see who the owner is. There are a lot of older people who have huge tracks of land and it hasn't even occurred to them to rent it out because they don't think anyone would want it. A little work and you can work out a pretty good deal (might even let you do it for free)>

I'd suggest Craigslist, both in searching posted ads and in posting a wanted ad.  Also check out the bulletin boards at your local feed/farm stores.  And it wouldn't hurt to ask the folks behind the counter if they know anybody, since they're in constant contact with farmers and landowners.  Lastly, a door to door approach is worth a shot.

My land comes to me via word of mouth, and with a handshake... People know that I'm a farmer. They have land that is a burden to them. They wish that someone would take care of it, so they ask me if I'd grow on their land. I turn down more offers than I accept. If I was taking care of any more fields, I'd have to hire help, and that doesn't appeal to me. I paid rent the first few times, but I have since learned that land is a burden to it's owners. Many would even pay me to take care of their land for them.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:My land comes to me via word of mouth, and with a handshake... People know that I'm a farmer. They have land that is a burden to them. They wish that someone would take care of it, so they ask me if I'd grow on their land. I turn down more offers than I accept. If I was taking care of any more fields, I'd have to hire help, and that doesn't appeal to me. I paid rent the first few times, but I have since learned that land is a burden to it's owners. Many would even pay me to take care of their land for them.

That is so true, large landownership is a burden to a lot of landowners. There are many locations on my farm where it just is not 100% productive, I have plans in place to eventually get there, but most landowners are not as proactive as I am either. People can find that, but I disagree with door to door approaches being the last resort, it should be the first shot, and a no should not be misconstrued as a no from a landowner. It takes time to build a trust-relationship, consider a "no" as really a "not now" answer even if it is conveyed as no. Obviously there may be times a no is pretty obvious, but the point is, it takes time and effort to gain land access. But considering the cost of property taxes today, its not a bad thing to let someone else pay them.

Travis Johnson wrote:...but I disagree with door to door approaches being the last resort...

If that was directed at my first response, I should clarify that I said "lastly" only because that was last in my list, not necessarily last in preferred order.

The door to door approach seems most practical, really, because it allows one to focus their efforts on a specific area, rather than posting or responding to ads that cover a much larger geographical area.

Besides the farmyard browsing mentioned, it's kind of a hard task to find small plots of land for the stuff you are interested in, as cropland(already broken) is usually divided into large areas. The farm I work at has mostly quarter(160 acres) sections, but there is one 30 acre plot which is across from a 10 acre plot. The only reason it's so small is that the rest of the 120 acres are steep valley which I guess ended up as crownland(gov't) pasture.

Speaking of, crownland is an interesting thing around here. You can find some half acre next to abandoned railway track - I have no idea how pieces of land end up like that, but they are posted. If I never did searches, I'd never have known such spots existed as one would just assume they are part of a large piece of land.Examples of places for lease under 10 acres. (apparently i can't direct-link, type in RM 139)

Crown resource lands may be used for a variety of purposes under a lease, permit, easement or licence that allow the legal occupation or use of the land. Examples include:
- Remote recreational cottage;
- Traditional resource use cabins;
- Commercial and industrial operations; and
- Wild rice harvesting.
Leases are generally longer term dispositions that allocate lands for particular use. Permits are shorter term authorizations that grant access to the land for a specific purpose.  

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Actually, until now I forgot that one of our pastures is next to the now shutdown landfill. The landfill was on a 65 acre spot of land owned by the RM, but only took up 1.5 acres. We rent the rest of it since it's right next to ours and I believe we pay like $1/acre for it lol. Like I said, it's interesting stuff. Maybe there's something similar around where you are, Gilbert.

Best of luck!

My boyfriend is looking for land to rent to raise beef cattle, typically have around 20 calves at a time. He is currently in Pikeville, TN. He is looking to stay around this area or if possibly relocate my cattle to North Georgia area. We have searching online and all the sites say to buy land. We are not interested in buying right now but may be interested into rent to buy. If anyone has something available please reach out to me via email: munchkin79@live.com or text 404-683-7820. Thank you.

Hi Jessica,

Welcome to Permies!  Given that you have not gotten a reply, I suspect it is because you have attached your post to the bottom of an old thread.  You may want to start a new thread in Hope's of getting more replies.