West Central Illinois | oldtiger - 4/2/2026 17:56
Personally, there is no good answer and both parties will feel like they got screwed in the end. The longer I sit and think, the more bad scenarios I can think of
I agree. I'm currently in a 2/3 shares deal with a neighbor on a herd of 12. Inputs are split the same way though and I have 8 on the place he has 4 but to be honest I really would like to just make him a really good deal on cash rent and be done with it. You get nickel and dimed to death because every little thing the place needs you have to keep record of to split on the next bill any time you fix fence, work/treat calves, feeding hay everything has to be recorded etc. I also bale the little bit of waterway hay on the place as 2/3 shares as well but I provide all equipment for everything from putting up hay to feeding hay all winter it's all my iron my fuel. It's not a great pasture by any means but has potential in the future and it's across the road. There's a little bit of good fence, but what's not recently built is really bad and the landowner doesn't want to fix it so it's the kind of deal where I'm just putting lipstick on the pig every year, tying wires off to trees etc. But I'll probably keep doing it they're just good neighbors.
Personally I just think cattle are just too labor intensive to make shares truly fair if the landowner provides none of the daily labor. Only way I would consider any type of shares deal in the future it would have to be a well setup farm capable of grazing 40 cows or more for 8-9 months out of the year. |
Cow Calf shares.
