Photo by Zoe Schaeffer on Unsplash
New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service has launched a new website to address the critical land access needs in the state by connecting farmers and ranchers with landowners.
New Mexico LandLink provides a platform that allows farmers and ranchers to find land and landowners to find a producer for their property. Both users can create FREE Land-Seeker or Landowner Listings, communicate directly through the website’s secure messaging portal, and discover resources!
“This website is critical to the future of New Mexico’s agriculture because it provides a tailor-fitted platform to connect land-seekers and landowners, communicate, and ultimately, achieve land access,” New Mexico LandLink Program Coordinator Weston Medlock said.
The New Mexico LandLink site was created thanks to funding from the Thornburg Foundation, and further program expansion will be supported by a New Mexico Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant.
“If recent trends continue, by the year 2040, over 204,000 acres of farmland will be lost to development, which is more than six times the size of Santa Fe,” Medlock said. “The ultimate goal is to mitigate this loss of agricultural land by creating a land access hub for beginning and expanding farmers and ranchers.”
NM LandLink goes beyond a land-linking website by providing technical land access assistance for farmers, ranchers, and landowners. Oftentimes, land-seekers and landowners struggle with knowing where to start when venturing into either finding land to lease or finding the right farmer/rancher to steward their land. That’s why NM LandLink is here to educate and support individuals understand the various creative options that can help them meet their personal goals and make more informed decisions.
One of the resources that will soon be available on the New Mexico LandLink site is the New Mexico Land Access Handbook. This toolkit will include topics such as New Mexico’s agricultural land use, land access agreement types, considerations for landowners leasing their land, considerations for land-seekers leasing land, unique compensation structures, common land lease agreement components, variables for determining land value, and succession planning.
“The New Mexico Land Access Handbook will be unique in that it will be a comprehensive toolkit for farmers, ranchers, and landowners to help navigate the process of what it looks to have someone farm your land, and what it looks like for you to farm someone else’s land,” Medlock said. Medlock added that the New Mexico LandLink site isn’t a real estate service or legal service website.
To learn more about New Mexico LandLink, visit https://landlinknm.org,
or contact NM LandLink Program Coordinator, Weston Medlock:
Email: wmedlock@nmsu.edu | Cell Phone: 901-486-1344
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