Closer communication and in­­novations will be vital for landowners and tenants as they work out farmland rental rates in an era of lower crop revenues and rising interest in soil conservation and water quality, a panel of lenders and farm managers said last week during a land management conference in Ames.

Farmers and landowners both need to reconcile to a new, lower revenue environment that puts a premium on holding the line on cost, Jim Knuth, senior vice president of Farm Credit Services of America, said during a panel discussion at Iowa State University’s 89th annual Soil Management and Land Conference.

That reconciliation could in­­clude looking for alternative ways to set rents instead...