Land Tenure Tenure has to do with how you control something. Farmers may own all their land that they operate as a farm. Such owner-operators have become fairly rare in good farming areas because the land is so valuable that the costs of owning are prohibitive. Owner-operators are more likely in areas where land is rough and less productive. Being a part-owner is a good situation because a landlord cannot remove farmer and family from their home.
Tenants rent all the land the operate.
Young farmers often start in this circumstance and hope to inherit or buy some land eventually. Renters pay the owner either cash rent or divide the product of the land with the owner. Managers are out there running farms, too. They earn a salary and perhaps a bonus of some sort. The Bellflower dairy operation would have a manager.