According to the Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agriculture Land (TOTAL) survey, 354 million acres of farmland in the lower 48 States were rented to farmers by 2.13 million landlords in 2014.

The average amount of land rented out per landlord yields insights into whether rented farmland is concentrated amongst particular types of landlords.

Operator landlords — farm operators who rent land to other farmers — typically rented out more acreage than non-operator landlords.

Among non-operator landlords, the acres held in corporate, trust, and other types of non-operator ownership arrangements are more concentrated (proportionately more land in fewer hands) than individual and partnership non-operator landlords.

The median rented acreage for farmers who rent land from others was 111 acres in 2014—larger than the median acreage rented to farmers by each landlord type.

This means that most farm operators looking to rent farmland must instead piece together holdings from multiple landlords. This chart is found in the November 2015 Amber Waves data feature, “Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) Survey 2014: A New ERS/National Agricultural Statistics Service Data Product.”