Last week, this column highlighted important land stewardship investment opportunities in light of strongly positive profitability for beef cattle production projected to extend through 2026. Since much of the land on which cattle are grazed or hay is made is rented by stockmen from nonfarming landowners, now is an important time for landowners and their farmer tenants to discuss investments in stewardship.
The Natural Bridge Soil and Water Conservation District (540-319-6453) and the local USDA Service Center (540-4637124) have programs that provide technical and financial assistance for some of these stewardship investments such as interior fences or livestock water points. They have personnel available for onsite consultation free of charge and with no obligation.
I often engage with landowners interested in other aspects of land stewardship, especially pollinator and bird habitat. Enhancing the productivity of pastures and hay meadows is the best way to identify and create spaces specifically for pollinators and other wildlife. If we can improve the carrying capacity of pasture with improved fences and additional water points, it is easier for the stockman to accept and even enable marginal or less accessible acres to be developed for wildlife habitat.
Fences are very expensive infrastructure and perimeter fences have important legal, liability, and real estate value attributes for landowners that extend beyond agricultural uses. A well-constructed perimeter fence should have a life of 30 or more years. The woody invasive species that now plague our landscape, if allowed to grow into a fence unchecked, can ruin the functionality of a fence in less than 10 years. Because of the real estate, legal, and liability functions perimeter fences serve, landowners have a vested interest in the maintenance of the perimeter fence. Good perimeter fences benefit the landowner, not just the stockman.
I have had conversations with landowners enthusiastic for “natural fencerows” to benefit wildlife. A linear wildlife habitat feature can benefit the ecosystems but these should never be co-located with fences. The opportunity for linear vegetative features with a mix of trees and shrubs is on our slopes. Such a strip planting can follow the land’s contour and, in time, its roots and aerials parts work to slow the movement of storm water to capture and store valuable moisture.
The long-run health and resilience of our Rockbridge countryside is best served by constructive conversations between landowners and farmer-tenants that lead to well-structured lease arrangements that incentivize investments in soil fertility, fences, and grazing and vegetative management that slows and captures water.
These lease arrangements generally need to be six to 10 years in length with early termination provisions that account for circumstances changing for either party. Such a multi-year lease agreement can provide the farmer a pro-rated reimbursement for fence and fertility investments they make now in the event the landowner has to terminate the lease early.
Your columnist has encountered very successful applications of such lease terms and in every case, the advice of professional legal counsel was instrumental in protecting both landowner and tenant. The leases that extend for less than 24 months consistently leave the landowner playing an expensive game of catch-up at a later date for essential stewardship practices and land clearing at a later date.
For assistance addressing long term stewardship needs for farmland you own or rent, contact me, Tom Stanley, by calling the Rockbridge County Extension office or by e-mail at [email protected].
