Business Case · Land Use

Farm it, lease it out, or contract it?

Viby's arable is let to tenants today, which is a perfectly good use of it. The question is what happens when cattle arrive: keep collecting rent and buy feed in, or take the land in hand and grow the feed yourself. This page answers it per hectare, sets out what a farming year actually involves, and shows how much land you can keep let at each herd size.

The answer in one line: a hectare feeding your cattle is worth several times a hectare earning rent. Arable lets for around 2,100 SEK/ha a year. The same hectare grown as grass ley feeds about 1.5 bulls, and it also carries roughly 3,800 SEK/ha of area payments that follow whoever farms the land — not whoever owns it.

Netting the rent against the extra cost of buying feed instead of growing it, taking the land in hand is worth roughly 450,000 SEK a year at the herd size set below. Lease out only the land you genuinely cannot use.

And there is a rule that removes the choice entirely if you want organic. EU 2018/848 requires 70% of the annual ration to come from your own organic holding. Land farmed by a tenant is not yours for this purpose, and its crop is theirs. Leasing out the arable forfeits organic certification, whatever else you do — see the certification page.

The comparison

Set the herd and the land. "Farm what you need" grows feed for the cattle and lets whatever is left over; "lease it all out" collects rent on everything and buys feed in at market prices.

Three strategies, side by side

How the advantage grows with the herd

The gap between farming your own feed and leasing the land out, as the herd grows. The vertical line is where the cattle need every hectare you have, and there is nothing left to let.

Farm what you need, let the rest

Lease it all out and buy feed

All land needed

What a farming year actually involves

Not what most people picture. For a grass ley the plough appears roughly once every four years; the recurring work is cutting grass two or three times a summer.

Four ways to get the work done

A full contractor. They arrive with mower, wrapper and tractor and do the lot. Simplest, dearest per hectare, and no capital tied up in machinery.
A neighbouring farmer. Very common in Sweden and often the cheapest — your fields become part of their existing round. It also builds the local relationship that turns out to matter for everything else.
A maskinring. A machinery ring where members share equipment and labour at agreed rates.
Own a mower, hire the rest. A middle path worth revisiting once volumes are proven — not in year one, when the demand assumption is still being tested.

The cost is already in the plan. The feed figure of about 7,000 SEK per animal comes from Hushållningssällskapet's calculations, where home-produced silage is costed at 1.80–1.90 SEK/kg dry matter — and that already includes the field operations. Bought-in forage is about 2.80. Contracting is not an extra on top; it is inside the number, and it is why home-grown feed is roughly a third cheaper.

What contracting really costs you

Timing, not money. You cut when the contractor arrives, not when the grass is at its best — and every farm in the district wants first cut in the same fortnight.
Quality, therefore growth. Grass cut late is lower in energy, and lower-energy silage means slower liveweight gain and longer on the farm.
A queue position you should ask about now. "Where would I sit in your order?" is a more useful question than the price per hectare.
Dependence on one relationship. Worth having two contractors' numbers, and worth being the customer who pays promptly and is easy to work with.

Not yet quoted: mowing, wrapping and carting per hectare or per bale; muck spreading; ley establishment and reseeding. These belong on the call list — no Swedish source publishes contractor rates.

Phasing — how much you can keep let

You do not need all the land on day one. This is how the arable divides as the herd grows, and it fits the existing tenancies: keep them while the herd is small, take fields in hand as it grows.

The practical sequence. Keep both tenants through the validation season and the first year — you are not ready to farm, the rent is contracted income the bank likes, and the Layer 1 case depends on it. Take arable in hand as the herd grows, starting with the fields nearest the buildings. Give notice in line with the arrende contracts, whose termination dates are still unknown and are a blocking item on the call list.

One caution about the order of operations: if organic is the intention, the land must complete its two-year conversion before its crop counts as organic feed. That clock only starts when the land is notified to a certifier, and it does not care whether a tenant or you are farming it in the meantime. Notifying early is cheap and buys the option.

Open questions

What this page could not settle, why each answer changes a decision, and where it has to come from. Blocking means do not commit capital until it is answered.

Question	Why it matters	Where the answer comes from
When can each arrende contract actually be terminated?Blocking	It decides when you can take land in hand and therefore when cattle can be fed from your own ground. Swedish agricultural tenancies carry security of tenure, so this is not a matter of simply giving notice.	The two contracts themselves, obtained from the seller before any offer.
What do contractors charge here, and where would you sit in the queue?Blocking	The whole home-grown feed advantage rests on producing silage at around 1.85 SEK/kg dry matter. If local contracting is materially dearer, buying feed in becomes competitive and the land argument weakens.	Two contractors and one neighbouring farmer — ask price per hectare or per bale, and your position at first cut.
What does this land actually yield in dry matter per hectare?Blocking	Every hectare figure on this page scales directly with it. At 4 t DM/ha instead of 5.5 the same herd needs a third more land, and Viby's 74 ha stops being enough.	The outgoing tenants — they have been cutting these fields and know exactly what comes off them.
Does the ley need reseeding, and when was it last done?Important	An old, weedy ley yields far less than a fresh one. Reseeding is the one operation that does involve ploughing, and it is a cost in the first year if the swards are tired.	Walk the fields with an adviser in spring; ask the tenants when each was last sown.
Would a tenant sell you the crop instead of you farming it?Background	It sounds like a neat middle path, but bought crop is purchased feed — it does not count toward the 70% own-farm requirement, so it closes off organic.	A certifier, if organic matters; otherwise a commercial conversation with the tenants.

Prepared August 2026 as a planning aid. Lease rates are Jordbruksverket's 2024 national average for arable; area payment rates are those used across this business case and are re-set annually. Forage production cost of 1.80–1.90 SEK/kg dry matter and the bought-in comparison of 2.80 are from Hushållningssällskapet's published production-branch calculations and a seller's 2025 list price respectively. Ley yield, dry matter intake per animal and contractor costs are assumptions — the first two are modelled across this plan and the third is not quoted anywhere. The organic feed rule is EU 2018/848. Not financial advice.