Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Caring for the land: Women landowners tell their stories

Back to Leopold Letter Winter 2012

By MELISSA LAMBERTON, Leopold Center graduate research assistant

Imagine deeply caring for land that you own, but having little power to determine its future.

That’s the situation that faces many women farmers and landowners today. Women currently own about half of the rented farmland in the United States, but many of them come from a generation and culture when they were not considered decision-makers. They sometimes lack the knowledge and confidence to make informed choices despite their deep ties to the land.

The Drake University Agricultural Law Center collaborated with Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) to capture the stories of women landowners in Iowa on film. The project is part of the Sustainable Agricultural Land Tenure (SALT) Initiative, which is funded by the Leopold Center’s Policy Initiative.

“A lot of the women have a strong connection to the land,” said Edward Cox, principal investigator of the SALT Initiative and a fellow at Drake University. “They’ve been involved with the farm operations, but they still have challenges in negotiating farm leases and ensuring the land is used as they best see fit.”

Cox partnered with Leigh Adock, WFAN executive director, to interview women landowners. They created three videos that capture moments of determination, strength, worry and humor as women discuss their land, their families, and the difficult choices they have made.  

Farm leases

Adcock said that women landowners often don’t know that they can choose a tenant and develop a lease agreement that aligns with their conservation values. Adcock interviewed Mildred Skalla, Laura Krause, Chris Henning, Martha Skillman and Charlotte Shivvers for the project, as well as tenant farmer Jerry Peckumn and ISU economist Mike Duffy.

“These women are strong,” Adcock said. “They need to know the facts, and they need encouragement from other women like them who have made difficult choices in the face of family or social resentment.”

One such woman is Mildred Skalla, who spoke about the painful decision to lease her farm to someone outside the family. As land transitions from male farmers to their spouses, women like Skalla unexpectedly find themselves in the role of decision-maker, and may feel pressured to rent to a family member or neighbor even if they have differing views on how to manage the land.   

“These men are not doing their wives any favors,” Skalla said. “Teach them what needs to be done.”  

From the tenant’s perspective, Peckumn said it’s important for landowners to explain the balance they want to strike between conservation and profit. “Conservation on land is the responsibility of the landowner because that’s a long-term investment,” he said. “But the tenant has the responsibility of stewardship, implementing the plan.”

The next generation

The average age of Iowa farmers is 56, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. High costs of land and farm equipment remain a significant barrier to beginning farmers, as well as the need to work off-farm for additional income and affordable health insurance.

The women interviewed expressed a strong desire to bring young families onto their farms and foster a conservation-minded future generation. “Young men and women, they’re going to be feeding us,” said Laura Krause, who runs a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation. “They care about food, and they care about the ecosystem.”

Caring for the land

Cox and Adcock hope that the videos will show women landowners and beginning farmers that they are not alone, as well as inform policymakers and educators.

“They have similar issues that any landowner would face, but these women haven’t been decision-makers up until now,” Adcock said. “I’ve heard stories of women going to agencies for help and being told to come back with their husband or brother.”

That’s something that WFAN hopes to change. Through the “Women Caring for the Land” program, WFAN brings women together to meet land management professionals, learn from one another and see conservation practices on the ground. 

“They have a lot of the answers themselves, and it’s just a matter of empowering them and letting them know that they are in control of their own land and legacy,” Cox said.

WFAN and Drake University have developed websites to provide resources to landowners: www.WomenCaringfortheLand.org and www.SustainableFarmLease.org. More resources, as well as the new videos, can be found on the Leopold Center website. 

“To me, success would look like this: More women doing more conservation on more acres of farmland,” Adcock said.

Back to Leopold Letter Winter 2012