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 land-seekers and landowners to communicate and discover resources, and a program for NMSU Extension agents to access tools and resources needed to aid New Mexico residents.
“This website is critical because it allows a targeted approach for land-seekers and landowners to be able to find each other, communicate through a secure messaging portal on the website 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 land and create a central, one-stop shop hub for beginning farmers and ranchers and transiting farmers and ranchers to access land.”
One of the resources that will soon be available on the New Mexico LandLink site is a land access handbook. This tool includes information on 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, land access compensation structures, common land lease agreement components, variables to consider when 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. “One of the things that I think will be most appreciated about the handbook is it will have information tailor fitted to New Mexico.”
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.
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CUTLINE: New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service has launched a new website, New Mexico LandLink, to address the critical land access needs in the state by connecting farmers and ranchers with landowners. (NMSU photo)