Farmland Equity Partners’ history extends back to 1997 when Dave Oster founded the Little Grant Farms LLC partnership. This partnership was formed after carefully researching several areas and many different properties with the goal of finding a high quality mixed use property. The partners also identified communities where land prices were depressed due to local issues.
The Driftless Region of southwest Wisconsin has 
land which has open pastures, row crop farming, timber and recreational opportunities. In spite of the advantages in the area, the partners’ research led them to believe that the prevailing land market was being overshadowed by the difficulties that the area’s dairy industry was facing at that time.
Partnership income in the early years was generated solely from rental income. In subsequent years this rental income has been substituted for a flex lease crop share arrangement and income has been augmented through timber and small acreage sales.
To manage the price risk of the crop share lease Little Grant Farms rely on Dave’s 25 years as a professional commodity options trader. Little Grant Farms uses hedge to arrive and cash commodity contracts as well as futures and options to lock in crop share prices. The experiences gained from the management of this partnership over the last 19 years will be beneficial to Farmland Partners of America.