Evaluate cash rent sustainability using the 25% gross revenue benchmark and year-by-year Kentucky profitability data. Enter your crop mix and current rent to see how your operation compares.
Young Farm
High-Tech, High-Productivity, and High-Return Farming
Rental Analysis — Western Kentucky
University of Kentucky Extension research (Greg Halich) and the broader land economics literature consistently finds that a sustainable cash rent for row crop ground should not exceed approximately 25% of gross revenue — the value of the crop before any production costs are deducted.
This guideline is grounded in long-run average returns: across typical commodity price cycles, operators who pay rent above 25–30% of gross revenue face a high probability of operating losses in down years, eroding working capital and jeopardizing the tenancy.
The 25% figure is a guideline, not a guarantee. Individual operator efficiency, yield levels, input costs, and lease terms all affect sustainability.
"Max Possible" is the gross return before rent — revenue minus all non-rent production costs. It represents the theoretical maximum a tenant could pay and still break even (zero profit). In practice, a sustainable rent is well below this ceiling.
Years where the max possible figure is negative indicate that production costs exceeded crop revenue even before any rent payment — a loss year for the crop regardless of rent level.