Communication with landlords will be particularly important for Iowa farmers in the coming months as the agriculture ec­­onomy begins to downshift in­­to a period of narrower margins, said Kelvin Leibold, a farm management specialist at Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach.

Lower corn and soybean prices, combined with the rising input costs for the past several years, are starting to "shrink the size of the pie" for both farmers and landlords, said Leibold. "Now the question will be whose slice of the pie gets squeezed as we move forward," he said.

Farmers will need to keep landlords informed about input costs and the tighter margins, Leibold said. It’s especially important because of today’s volatile economic climate and because many landlords today are not directly connected to agriculture, he said.

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