The farm manager's management

Not all landowners live near the ground they own and hire farm managers to oversee all aspects of managing the property. Some hire and work with farm managers directly, others go through a management company to keep all parties up to date on the farm’s interests. The manager’s actions can affect long-term sustainable production and future income.

Dave Englund is the President and CEO of Farmer’s National Company. He says it’s important that everyone involved communicates on a regular basis.

"We might see the farm operator on a daily basis, weekly, or whatever basis. We’ll see them a lot more than what we will sometimes the farmland owner," says Englund. "We sit down and talk with them and a lot of times we even might sit down with the farm owner and the operator and have a discussion on what needs to be done on the property, be it any improvements that need to be done or anything. But, several times a year is very good to do that."

Farm owners should be responsible to find managers that represent their interests. This could include monitoring things like soil health, crop production, and conservation stewardship.

"You want to make sure that you have a person that can communicate ideas and thoughts both from the operator and the owners so that everybody knows what direction they that all want to go in on the operation of the farm," he says. "You know, you want to have a good agronomic background, things like that, but I would say a good communicator is going to go a long way with keeping everybody informed of what needs to be going on."