Contacts are an increasingly important aspect of agricultural production and marketing.
Such contracts may take the form of leases, contracts for deed, production contracts, or marketing contracts. This fact sheet deals with the legal considerations involved in agricultural production contracts. A production contract usually specifies in detail the production inputs to be supplied by the contractor, the quality and quantity of the particular commodity involved, the production practices to be used, and the manner in which compensation is to be paid to the producer. While significant attention has recently been focused on production contracts with large, corporate agricultural processors, farmers themselves can be contractors. A swine farmer may simply operate a farrowing business for surrounding farmers.