With prices and input costs fluctuating, people need to review their lease arrangements and adjust for the year ahead, says Craig Dobbins, a Purdue University Extension farm lease and business arrangements specialist.

"Determining a fixed cash rent in the current environment is a difficult task and will likely require multiple discussions between landlords and tenants," says Dobbins. "It's a matter of being able to put yourself in the other's shoes and understanding the kinds of costs and risks that are being taken by all parties involved.

"As long as people keep communicating with each other, they will eventually find a number that is agreeable and equitable. You just have to keep talking and try to understand the other person's perspective. However an agreement is not reached in all cases, and the land sometimes changes hands."

Many factors influence the amount of cash rent that is paid, Dobbins says. These factors include land productivity, drainage capability and the condition of existing tiles, soil fertility, condition of existing facilities, expected crop returns and typical cash rent for the area. Other things to consider include the reputation or previous experiences between the landlord and the tenant; unpaid services provided by the tenant, such as mowing or spraying ditches, maintaining fence rows, repairing tile, maintaining lanes or roads on the farm; and the location and size of the farm, as well as the field's shape and size.

The more information that is known about a farm, the more precise one can be when trying to determine a reasonable cash rent, he says. A couple of different methods can be used to determine the cash rent.

"One method requires the landowner to know quite a bit of information about the property – like what the yields have been in the past," Dobbins says. "This will help determine the farm's productivity level."

This method also includes estimating next year's prices, as well as production costs. Dobbins recommends using the futures market as a guide to estimate next year's crop prices.