Completed By: Claire Mesesan – VP, Farmer Relations & Raya Carr – Senior Relationship Manager

Organization and its farmland

• How much farmland does your organization own and manage? (total acres):

30,108 total (owned: / financed through mortgages: ) Note that Iroquois Valley does not manage farmland – we work with independent farmers who manage their own operations. Our only management requirement is that farmland be certified organic

• Where is this farmland located? (Counties, State): 44 unique counties in 17 states

• Will you be acquiring more farmland over time? (Y/N/Maybe) Yes

• How much of your current farmland do you expect to still be in farmland in 10 years? (Please provide estimate by percentage or acreage, whichever is easier) 

100%

• What percentage or number of acres of your farm properties have farm infrastructure (fencing, well water, farm buildings – not including tiling)? Please share any helpful comments or explanations. 

A small percentage of acres comprising our farm properties have infrastructure. We don’t have this data point, but as a guestimate 5% > .

• In general, is your organization interested and willing to invest in more infrastructure (fences, wells, farm buildings, etc.) on the farmland it owns? (Y/N/Maybe – we welcome some comments as well if the situation is nuanced) 

It depends. For purchases, we are willing to make capital investments subject to approval. Typical projects may be fencing, grain bins, improvements to existing structures. For properties that already have or that need significant capital investment, we prefer to provide financing for the land and for the farmer(s) to take on financing infrastructure with another lender or through their own means. This is because we are not an active property manager and we do not want to take on responsibility for essential infrastructure as an owner; therefore, our preference is for the farmer to be the owner.

• What kind of farming is currently being done on your land? Please list the number of fields or acres for each.
  • • Conventional commodity row crops (corn & soy): 0
    • Conventional livestock production: 0
    • Organic/sustainable grains: 12,941 acres – farmed organically with a mix of transitional and certified production. We categorize this as crop rotation, which typically means corn, beans, wheat, and/or hay.
    • Organic/sustainable/rotational livestock production: Dairy (cow and 1 goat dairy operation) accounts for 1,685 acres / Livestock accounts for 10,846 acres. 
    • Local vegetable production:
    • Hay: Unknown, hay is grown at most if not all pastured dairy & livestock operations and is also grown on crop rotation farms. 
    • Trees/Agroforestry: Unknown, but approximately 12 farms in the portfolio are known to use agroforestry practices. Woodlands are also present on a number of crop farms, but we have not pulled that specific data yet.
      
    • Other: Diversified is a category we use to capture multiple (more than 2) entreprises on an operation. There are 4,626 acres in diversified production.
• Does your organization offer (or partner to offer) any education about farming to the public or to the farmers who farm your organization’s land? (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly describe)

Not typically; our focus is land security through financial services. In the past, we have sponsored farmer attendance at regional organic farming conferences. Farmers must have 3-5 years of experience in order to work with us. Their commitment to ongoing learning and education (farming, financial, business management, etc) are all positive factors in our investment-making process.

• How is revenue from your organization’s farmland used by your organization?

Revenue generated from farmer payments pay the vast majority of all expenses from staffing to investor payments (dividends and interest payments). The only other income Iroquois Valley receives is from grants, which accounts for 4% of Iroquois Valley’s income. 

Farmland management decision-making, staffing, and policies

• Who leads the management and operation of your farmland on a day-to-day basis?

The farmers we work with are in charge of their own operations and the management of farmland.

• How many staff total (full-time equivalents) manage your farmland on a day-to-day basis over a year? 

0

• What policies, if any, drive or guide your land management decisions?   

We are committed to organic farmland management as a baseline. Farmers are welcome and encouraged to go above and beyond organic in practices and additional certifications as relevant.

• Is fostering local food production on your farmland important to your organization? (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly explain how this is pursued or may be pursued in the future)

Yes. We are interested in supporting farmers at all levels of the food system, which includes those selling to local markets.

Relationship with Farmers and Conservation

• What kind of standard leasing and licensing arrangements do you have with your farmers? How long do your leases typically last and do they ever deviate from that period? How are farmers selected for farmland lease opportunities? How is lease pricing set for standard farmland lease arrangements?  

See crop rotation lease information and diversified lease information.

• How many total lease or lease-to-own agreements does your organization have? 

59 lease agreements total. Although farmers become eligible to purchase leased land after 7 years, we do not have any lease-to-own agreements.

• When a farmer’s lease ends, can it be renewed without going into a competitive process? (Y/N – explanation appreciated if you answered Yes)

Yes, leases are automatically renewed so long as farmers are in good standing. Keeping farmers on the land is one of our core guiding principles.

• Do you restrict any practices farmers can do on your land for conservation purposes (no fall tillage, prohibition on the use of certain chemicals, no hay cutting until certain date, etc.)?  (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly describe)

Yes, once the farmer is under contract with us, land must be transitioned to and maintained under organic certification.

• Do you require and/or incentivize any positive conservation measures to be taken by the farmers (use of cover crops, installation of prairie strips, etc)? (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly describe) 

Yes, we have an in-house grant program called the Soil Restoration Pool that funds farmer-proposed soil health & conservation projects from $500-$8,000. We also subsidize the organic transition period in our leases with lower rates.

• Do you have any programs designed to help beginning farmers (farmers with less than 10 years of experience) get a start on your organization’s farmland? If so, please describe. 

Yes, about 64% of the farmers we work with are millennials or have millennials involved on the farm and 2% are Gen Z. We find that our leases are popular with young farmers who often do not have capital for a down payment because they are investing in establishing and growing their operations.

• Does your organization allow for unique/custom farming arrangements on specific farmland properties to explore or test conservation approaches? (Y/N – if Yes, please describe) 

We are pretty agnostic to operation type so long as payments can be made and the land is certified organic. We underwrite based on business plan and financial documents against a specific property. This approach allows us to fund a wide range of farmers incorporating a variety of conservation practices within their operations.

• Please describe any edge-of-field practices your organization carries out around tillable acreages or requires farmers to plant/maintain (e.g. buffers or bioreactors, etc.).  

Many farmers we work with use buffer strips, particularly as needed to satisfy organic standards when properties are adjacent to conventional fields. Beyond that, many farmers we work with plant pollinator and native habitat, preserve rangeland, plant windrows/windbreaks, and restore riparian zones to name a few of the common ones.

• Do you have any organic farming leases/arrangements with farmers? (Y/N – if Yes, please describe briefly and share how many acres are in organic production) 

Yes. The numbers below represent estimates. Some of the acres listed as transitional were eligible for certification this year, but we don’t have updated records on the timing 

• • • Certified organic: 0 acres
    • Uncertified but managed organically: 417 (these are exceptions for people who found organic certification cost prohibitive. 307 of those acres will be recertified in the next year. 
    • Transitional acres: Need to ask Arnie if 2019 crop properties would be certified now. 

• Do you do any formal or informal activities to build good relationships with your farmer tenants/partners, like meeting in person on an annual basis? (Y/N – if Yes, please describe briefly) 

Yes. Annual financial & operational review with relationship manager and a farm visit (strive toward an annual basis, but may be less frequently for more remote farms and may be more frequently for other farms). Farmer newsletter and listserv to share relevant news from the company along with interesting opportunities (grants, news, etc), and to highlight farmers and their operations. 

Monitoring and Information systems

• What systems does your organization use for holding and storing data about your farmland properties as well as for administering them (GIS, databases, etc.)?  

Recently invested and are in the process of implementing two software systems: Tillable and Abrigo, which should be fully in use in the new year. We use Box for sensitive information and records and a mix of Google Drive for more general information. Some use of Microsoft Excel.

• What things do you monitor to determine whether your farmland management system has the conservation impacts you want to see?  

Generally, we find that the farmers we work with are very invested in their land. They have unique interests and motivations when it comes to impact measurement. We are supportive of farmers defining what that means to them and try to capture a baseline through an annual soil health survey. We don’t necessarily get full participation and it doesn’t necessarily capture everything, so this may not be entirely accurate or representative of the portfolio.

• Soil testing? (Y/N – if yes, please provide a short description of what kind, how often, who pays for soil testing, whether same testing lab is used, etc.)

We track whether farmers are testing their soil, what metrics they’re looking for and have seen over time, and what kind of tests they use. If they do, we may ask for copies of the tests. 

• Other soil health metrics (earthworms, etc.)? Y/N plus a short description. 

Unknown

• Erosion monitoring? Y/N with a short description if Yes 

This is a part of our soil health survey.  We work with farmers who are enrolled in the Highly Erodible Land Conservation program through NRCS.

• Water quality testing/monitoring? Y/N plus short description if Yes  

Unknown

• Wildlife monitoring? Y/N plus short description if Yes  

One farm in the portfolio is certified through Xerces Society Bee Better program to support native pollinators and another is certified through Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program. We work with another farm that works with their Soil & Water Conservation District on a Grassland Bird Conservation program called Ag Allies. There are other anecdotal stories on wildlife that we are aware of, but these are the formal programs I know farmers in the network are engaged in.  

• Is the farmer responsible for providing any of the above information?

Yes, primarily through a survey and conversations.

• Do you have any indexes or other systems for quickly assessing the practices and ecological health of a particular piece of farmland?  

No

Bigger Picture Questions 

• What are the three projects and/or aspects of your farmland management system you are most proud of in terms of your organization’s farmland management system over the past three years?

We are proud of the fact that we support independent farmers across the country to grow their organic, transitional, and regenerative farming operations through our diverse financial products.

• What are three of your instiution’s biggest challenges around conservation-minded management of its farmland?

Many challenges come down to the financial pressure farmers face generally. Most farmers want to do more conservation practices than they have the resources to implement. 

• What changes are you considering making to your farmland management system over the next five years? 

We are always working on developing our farmer-facing financial products to be more supportive! We are working on pooling more key resources to share with our farmer partners, as well. Another long-term goal is to build in additional, creative ways for farmers to build equity in our Company, and the properties they manage.