Farmland management software that serves the lease notice on time and keeps the tract records straight
Farmland management is the work of running ground you do not farm yourself: the leases, the tenants, the rent, the conservation obligations and the government program records attached to each tract. The deadlines are statutory and unforgiving. An Iowa farm tenancy rolls into the next crop year automatically on the same terms unless written notice is served on or before September 1, and the tenancy then ends the following March 1. Neurobird holds the tract, the lease and the notice clock on one record.
Neurobird Farmland Management in short
- Run the termination and renewal notice dates per lease, ahead of the state deadline
- Hold farm and tract numbers against the ground they actually describe today
- Track rent due, rent paid and the basis each figure was calculated on
- 562.6 The Iowa section under which a farm tenancy continues into the following crop year on the same terms unless written notice of termination is served, after which the tenancy ends the following March 1. Iowa Code 562.6
- 562.7 The Iowa section listing the ways that notice may be served, each of which must be completed on or before September 1: delivery with signed acceptance, personal service or publication, or certified mail deposited before the date. Iowa Code 562.7
- Pricing runs 79 to 890 US dollars per month across 3 tiers. Early access is free.
What farm managers, landowners and farmland investors actually deal with
Why it stays broken
Farmland is owned by people who do not farm it and farmed by people who do not own it, and the record sits with neither. The lease is a private document, the farm number is a government record, the conservation plan belongs to a third agency and the rent is a bank entry, so a single tract exists in four systems that never speak to each other. Farm software was built for the operator's agronomy, not for the owner's paperwork.
Iowa Code 562.7 requires written notice of termination to be delivered, personally served or mailed by certified mail on or before September 1, after which the farm tenancy terminates the following March 1.
If a written agreement is made fixing the time of the termination of a tenancy, the tenancy shall terminate at the time agreed upon, without notice.
How does Neurobird Farmland Management work?
Map the tract
Owner, acres, farm and tract number, and the lease that currently covers it, so the ground and the paperwork are describing the same thing before anyone negotiates.
Run the lease year
Rent installments, the basis behind them, and the notice window the state sets, on a calendar that starts long before the crop does.
Watch the obligations
Conservation plan practices, program enrollments and their end dates, held against the tract, so an owner is not learning about them from a reduced payment two seasons later.
Neurobird Farmland Management Document Automation Platform
One record per tract: the owner, the farm and tract numbers, the lease and its rent terms, the tenant currently on it, the conservation obligations attached to the acres, and the notice date that decides whether next year is negotiable at all.
- 1Run the termination and renewal notice dates per lease, ahead of the state deadline
- 2Hold farm and tract numbers against the ground they actually describe today
- 3Track rent due, rent paid and the basis each figure was calculated on
- 4Keep conservation obligations where the owner can see them, not only the tenant
What changes with Neurobird Farmland Management?
The same work, read left to right: how it runs today, and how it runs once the record is in one place.
| Today | With Neurobird Farmland Management |
|---|---|
| September comes and goes and a lease you meant to renegotiate has rolled into another crop year on the old rent | Run the termination and renewal notice dates per lease, ahead of the state deadline |
| Three tracts under one farm number were reconstituted last spring and the lease files still describe the old ground | Hold farm and tract numbers against the ground they actually describe today |
| The tenant applied a practice the conservation plan does not allow and the owner found out from a reduced payment | Track rent due, rent paid and the basis each figure was calculated on |
Who is this for?
The same ground, three different owners.
You manage for absentee owners
Hundreds of tracts, dozens of owners and one notice deadline that lands on the same date for all of them. You need the lease calendar to run itself.
You inherited the ground
One farm, one tenant and a handshake that has run for twenty years. You need the lease terms, the rent history and the program records in one place before the next conversation.
You hold land as an asset
Tracts across several states, each with its own notice rule. You need per state deadlines and rent performance per tract, not a spreadsheet per acquisition.
The tract board, as your management office would work it
Serve a notice and watch the lease year, the rent schedule and the next deadline move together.
Watch the fields extract from the document.
What the rules say about farm leases and programs
One state statute that ends a farm tenancy on a fixed date, the federal program rules that cap and calculate rental payments, and the survey that sets the county benchmark rent most negotiations start from.
The Iowa section under which a farm tenancy continues into the following crop year on the same terms unless written notice of termination is served, after which the tenancy ends the following March 1.
Iowa Code 562.6The Iowa section listing the ways that notice may be served, each of which must be completed on or before September 1: delivery with signed acceptance, personal service or publication, or certified mail deposited before the date.
Iowa Code 562.7Maximum annual rental payment a person or entity may receive under the Conservation Reserve Program in any fiscal year, with a narrow exception for a rural water district protecting a wellhead.
USDA 7 CFR 1410.42Ceiling on grassland rental rates, which are based on not more than 75 percent of the estimated grazing value of the land, while cropland rates use soil productivity data and local cash rent estimates.
USDA 7 CFR 1410.42Cropland plus pasture threshold at which the 2008 Farm Bill requires mean cash rental rates to be published for a county, which is the benchmark most lease negotiations open from.
USDA NASS Cash Rents SurveySize at or below which noncommercial production on highly erodible land does not make a person ineligible for program benefits. Above it, an approved conservation system is what keeps eligibility intact.
USDA 7 CFR 12.5Farmland management software questions, answered
Key terms
- What is farmland management?
- It is the work of running ground on behalf of an owner who does not farm it: leases and tenants, rent collection, conservation obligations, and the federal program records attached to each tract. The deadlines come from state landlord and tenant law and from the program rules.
- What are the deadlines to end a farm lease?
- They are set by state. Iowa Code 562.6 rolls a farm tenancy into the next crop year automatically unless notice is served under 562.7, which requires delivery, personal service or certified mail on or before September 1, with the tenancy then ending March 1.
Does this replace our accounting system?
No. The books stay where they are. This holds the tract, the lease, the tenant, the notice dates and the program records, and hands the rent entries over to accounting rather than trying to be it.
How does it handle conservation program contracts?
As obligations attached to acres inside a tract, with their own end dates. Annual rental payments under the Conservation Reserve Program are capped at $50,000 per person or entity per fiscal year under 7 CFR 1410.42, so an enrollment matters to the owner's whole position rather than just to that field.
What happens when a farm is reconstituted?
The farm and tract numbers change while the ground does not. 7 CFR 718.201 sets when a reconstitution is required, and the record keeps the old and new numbers against the same acres so the lease file stays readable afterwards.
Why we are building this
We went looking for deadlines that arrive once a year and cost a whole season when they are missed, and farm leases kept coming up. A tenancy renews itself in silence, and the only thing standing between an owner and another year on last year's rent is a notice served before a date in early September. That is a record problem, and record problems are what we build. The statutes and program rules we read while scoping this are linked above, so you can check our reading of them instead of taking our word for it. If we have a state wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
Where the requirement comes from
Primary sources, straight from the regulators.
- Iowa Code 562.6, agreement for termination Why a farm tenancy renews itself, which tenancies are excluded, and the March 1 date it ends on.
- Iowa Code 562.7, notice, how and when served The three lawful service methods and the September 1 deadline that applies to every one of them.
- 7 CFR 1410.42, CRP annual rental payments How rental rates are built, the payment limit per person or entity, and how a payment splits on succession.
- 7 CFR 12.5, highly erodible land exemptions When production on highly erodible land costs a person their benefits, the good faith path and the variances.
- 7 CFR 718.201, farm constitution and reconstitution What can be combined into one farm, why a lease under a year is excluded, and when a reconstitution is required.
- USDA NASS, Cash Rents Survey The county level benchmark for irrigated cropland, non irrigated cropland and pasture, and where it comes from.
How much does Neurobird Farmland Management cost?
Priced per operation because the notice deadline is the same amount of work whether the tract is 40 acres or 400. Tracts, leases and owners are unlimited on the upper tiers.
- Up to 10 tracts
- Lease and rent records
- Notice deadline alerts
- Document storage
- Unlimited tracts
- Multi owner reporting
- Per state notice rules
- Program record tracking
- Portfolio views
- Rent performance by tract
- Owner statements
- Priority support
Get free early access
Early access means we load your tracts, your leases and your current notice dates before you type anything, and the account stays free while we do it.
Straight answer on where this is: The software is in development. Nothing is purchasable today. Early access means you shape it and pay nothing while we build.
Prefer email? Write to office@neurobird.com and a person will reply. No autoresponder.