As the 2025 harvest progresses, many farmers and landowners are already looking ahead to next year. Fall is a critical time for making financial decisions that will shape the upcoming crop season, including one of the most important: determining rent paid for farmland. Did you know that more than 30% of Missouri’s farmland is leased? That’s approximately 9.7 million acres being farmed by tenants across the state. In Ray County and beyond, farm leasing is a common practice, but it’soften misunderstood or neglected, especially by landowners who live out of the county or out of state. As an agricultural business field specialist with MU Extension, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, “How much is cash rent for crop ground?” The answer isn’t simple. Many landowners haven’t visited their property in some time, don’t know what the farm yields, and aren’t familiar with current market conditions. That’s where MU Extension can provide guidance and context about the state of…