App Seeks to Revolutionize the Farmland Rental Industry

The logistics of renting farmland has long been a complex matter. In an effort to streamline the process, Chris Bauman invented a farmland rental app called CashRent. In a recent article from AgWeb, author Chris Bennett offers a helpful overview of the app and its burgeoning importance to the farming industry.

Released in Illinois and Indiana in 2020, CashRent is an online marketplace that connects landowners with farmers looking to lease land. It uses a proprietary algorithm to generate rental values for listed land, taking into account a wide variety of factors including soil type, geography, topography, previous yields, forecasted yield, commodity prices, input prices, and more. Upon successfully brokering a farmland rental deal, the app receives a commission equal to 4% of the gross lease.

Bennett highlights CashRent’s unique approach to the rental auction process. Using the app, prospective leasers can offer bids for farmland rental. Landowners then view all bids and choose which farmer to lease to—and they are not required to lease to the highest bidder. This means that landowners can take into account factors beyond just the bid amount when choosing whom to lease their land. Through the app, landowners receive recommendations about the trustworthiness of bidders based on reference checks performed by CashRent.

As 40% of farmland in the United States is leased, CashRent is poised to be a gamechanger. It provides transparency and a clear-cut system for the farmland rental process, which has long been murky and difficult to navigate. As the app moves towards a nationwide release in 2021, landowners and land leasers should pay attention.

For further details, click here to read the article in full at AgWeb.