By Del Deterling
Progressive Farmer Contributing Editor

Matt Peters, foreground, and John Lase (Progressive Farmer image by Jim Patrico)

Matt Peters is only 55. Yet he is already thinking ahead to the time when he can ease off a bit, but remain involved in farming. However, neither one of Matt and Ginnie’s children has any interest in continuing the family farm business in Dawson, Iowa.

This past January, Peters signed an agreement with John Lase, a 29-year-old aspiring farmer from Neola, Iowa, to lease part of the acreage owned by Matt and his father. Peters leases additional land on which he grows corn and soybeans.

If the arrangement works out as planned, the two farmers hope over the years to transition management of the entire operation to Lase.

“I still want to be farming,” Peters says. “But I’d like to be able to spend my winters in a warmer climate.”

The vehicle that Peters used to find a young farmer with whom he was comfortable in sharing key management decisions was Iowa State University’s Farm On program.

David Baker, Iowa State farm transition specialist, explains that Farm On is “a service to help preserve the family farm business by matching beginning farmers who do not own land with retiring farmers who do not have a successor for the farming operation.

“We are like eHarmony, a matchmaking service for farmers,” Baker says. “We maintain one database of farmers with plans to retire in the next five to 10 years, but have no one to continue the farm business. We match that group with another database of young farmers who lack financial means, but who are willing to swap time, energy and sweat equity in return for an opportunity to get started in farming.”

The Farm On program was started in Iowa in 1994. Some 19 other states have similar programs. (Visit www.farmtransition.org; click Network Participants.)

John Lase grew up on a farm in Nebraska. “I always knew I wanted to farm,” he says. “I worked on farms all through high school, as well as weekends and summers while in college.”

He graduated from the Mechanized Systems Ag program at the University of Nebraska, and spent several summers working with a custom-harvesting crew that traveled from Oklahoma to Montana.

After he got married, he worked on a large commercial farm in the Missouri Valley for four years while share-leasing his mother-in-law’s 240 acres.

But all along, Lase was driven to farm on his own. After college, he enrolled in Nebraska’s Land Link program, a counterpart to Iowa’s Farm On. Then he signed onto Farm On. He had to wait five years before he received a call from David Baker.

Baker says, unfortunately, Farm On has about 350 applications from young farmers on file, but only about 18 applications from existing farmers at any one time.

Peters learned about Farm On at a farm seminar. He enrolled in February 2009. Last August, he and Baker screened a list of about 300 candidates, culling them down to about 30.

“John’s resumé almost immediately jumped out at me. He had the experience I was looking for,” Peters says. “I wanted someone who had farming experience. I didn’t want to have to draw a picture for everything that needed to be done. John had been operating combines, trucks and spray rigs,” Peters continues. “He had been managing a wheat-harvesting crew. He had maturity. He was my pick of the litter.”

The Peterses and the Lases had a face-to-face interview in September. They hit it off right away. After several additional conversations, Peters and Lase signed an agreement in January.

In their arrangement, Lase provides all the cash inputs for the acreage he is leasing. Peters provides equipment to Lase in return for his labor on the rest of the Peterses’ operation. In effect, Lase has become a working partner in Peters’ farming business.

In addition to his farming experience, Lase also brings knowledge of grain handling, mechanics and people managment to the operation. He is computer savvy and understands accounting and cash flow. And, for a 29-year-old, he exudes self-confidence.

Baker reports that Farm On has made more than 50 matches since the program began -- 38 in the past four years alone. He says the success rate has been around 90 percent. “Getting into farming has to be a process, not an event. Some try to do it too quickly,” Baker notes. “We had one farmer with health problems. He found a partner and they were shipping dairy cattle within two weeks after I had sent him an application. Their deal soured after a few months.

“Another hurdle is being willing to relocate. Some young farmers, for financial, family or sentimental reasons, can’t make the move from one part of the state to another.”

Baker says many of the deals are rental arrangements because the beginning farmer has no financial means and wants to avoid large debt for start-up costs. But some beginners also buy into the operation as they have the means to do so.

Matt Peters believes Farm On is a valuable tool for matching two parties with similar objectives and personalities. “This is a good way to help rural communities survive,” he adds. “If we don’t give more young farmers a chance to get involved, who will be left to farm 10 to 15 years from now?”

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