by Tracy Turner
COSHOCTON, Ohio – Women landowners and tenants can learn the art of negotiation, drawing up lease contracts and other facets of land-lease agreements during a workshop offered by the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.
The Ladies on the Land workshop is Oct. 20 from noon to 4:30 p.m. and will be held simultaneously in two locations: at the Frontier Power Community Room, 770 South 2nd St. in Coshocton; and at the Putnam County Extension Office, 1206 East 2nd St., in Ottawa.
The event is targeted toward female landowners and renters, said Emily Adams, an Ohio State University Extension educator and co-organizer of the event. OSU Extension is the outreach arm of CFAES. The goal of the workshop, she said, is to provide women landowners with the confidence, skills and resources necessary to successfully interact with tenants and also help both tenants and landowners develop and negotiate land-lease arrangements.
“Some women will find themselves in a situation where they haven’t been the primary landowners, but with the death of their parents or husband or other life experiences, they now are,” Adams said. “This will help them learn how to talk to tenants about what goes into a lease, how to feel confident in their abilities as a manger of their properties and to give them the tools they need to have those tough conversations.
“They may not have had the prior experience in negotiating tenant or land-lease agreements, so this workshop can help them understand the leasing process and what expectations they should have of their tenants from a land stewardship and economic standpoint.”
Statewide, some 31,413 women are reported as principal operators of farms. Combined, those farms cover some 3.8 million acres and contribute $230 million in economic impact, according to the 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture.
The workshop will focus on:
- The risks of leasing
- Verbal leases versus written leases
- The nuts and bolts of a lease
- Communications with your tenant
- The negotiation process and negotiation skills
- Factors that affect the rental rate
Registration is $20 and includes lunch and any handouts. Information is available at u.osu.edu/ohwomeninag/or by calling Adams at 740-622-2265 or Beth Scheckelhoff at 419-592-0806. The registration deadline is Oct. 13.