Given your recent update, I would be sending a certified, registered legal letter officially withdrawing any permission to access your property. Now.
Polite but firm. Do Not Enter.
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From what I remember from my 4H days, that would be a massive load of BS. Corn leaches nitrogen from the soil, that’s why farmers rotate crops. There’s usually alfalfa planted to replenish the nitrogen to help grow corn and other crops, rarely around here do you see the same crop on a field, other than alfalfa for a couple of years. then it’s turned over and something else (corn or soy) is planted. If he’s a a hay farmer, the last thing he wants to plant is corn.
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So you figure he’s killed everything on the fields? 2 4 D hasn’t been a thing around here for years, but if I recall correctly, it kills everything?
yup it does. so no grazing there for the horses either. also no point in fertlizer if you spray 2,4 D
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Corn is an incredibly “greedy” crop. It takes a lot out of the soil.
Not something I’d plant to improve it.
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Sounds like he had some plans for round-up ready corn on a hijacked field.
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If he killed the whole thing I’d sue his ass 
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Isn’t 2,4-d a broadleaf killer? So only grass will remain
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Exactly how did you respond when he told you about your field being weedy? “I go about my business” doesn’t sound like you told him clearly that the arrangement was over.
You buying hay from him and saying you have horses sure sounds to me like a way of saying I’m going to be needing hay every year. I honestly do not blame him one bit for interpreting this as “I need hay from my property”
Check your state law, because in Iowa, farm leases automatically renew unless terminated explicitly in writing:
“Iowa Code 562.6 generally provides that Iowa leases for a farm tenancy automatically renew for another crop year under the same terms and conditions as the original lease unless either party provides written termination notice (in the specific manner directed by statute[x]) on or before September 1. The auto-renewal provision applies equally to oral leases or written leases. It also applies equally to one-year leases or multi-year leases. Regardless of the length of the term of the original lease, the auto-renewal provision extends the existing lease for just one additional year. However, a lease continues to yearly auto-renew under the statute, unless either party issues a notice of termination. In other words, without statutory notice, an automatically renewed lease will renew again.”
None of your ownership information is relevent because a farm lease contract is on the land, doesn’t matter who is the owner. The new owner (and then you) bought the property and all the the existing encumbrances on the property. Just like if there was a pipeline easement on it-- you don’t get to tell the gas company to pull up the pipeline just because the old owner signed the contract.
Even if your state doesn’t have auto-renew, that he continued to perform his haying responsibilities and no one said anything probably counts as a tacit agreement that the contract remained in force.
I think you were vague enough in your communication and just the fact that you use the phrase “We assume” – just reimburse him the $1k. You directly benefit from that field application so it’s not throwing money away. And you’re about to invest tens of thousands in arena and fence construction-- vs a guy who I guarantee is not making a huge profit on anything he does. And every raw material input in his business (seed, fertilizer, gas) are seeing skyrocketing prices.
Sounds like you’re new to farm ownership / the rural way of doing things. Rest assured, you will have a lot of local enemies if you screw this guy out of the $1k he spent to improve your farm, while putting up fancy new arena and fences. (This is not my opinion, I’m just expressing this in the way it’ll be perceived and talked about)
Profusely apologize for all the confusion, reimburse him, and enjoy the weed-free lush pasture he just created for you.
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He did not create anything for this farm owner. He trespassed and applied herbicide and fertilizer, possibly, without the owner’s permission. He damaged the field, and destroyed stakes used for measurement. If anything, he owes her money.
At the very least, he will learn not to trespass and/or treat someone else’s property without a proper contract if he is not reimbursed. It is costly to behave stupidly!
He was not hired by this landowner to perform a job for her. He trespassed, illegally, uninvited, on HER property. Do not make the mistake of thinking he did her any favors, because he did not!
It has nothing to do with being familiar with a rural and farming lifestyle or not. Before you head that way again, I farm full time. We have farmed hay in the past, and are now strictly beef. I have farmed in more than one rural community, in two different states, and this behavior would not fly in any of them.
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Thank you. I thought it would be a total reseed project if that was what was used, forget fertilizer. A good plan by the OP to take samples for testing.
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So around here we have land use tax breaks. As long as you make $500 a year from your land, you receive a tax break. So a lot of people lease their property out to others to farm it in exchange for $500.
@jvanrens @Jaegermonster 2 4 D is a broadleaf killer, it kills weeds but leaves the grass. I’m hopeful that’s what it is, because the stuff has a really short half life and has been tested in animals for decades looking for negative effects.
@Mosey_2003 oh if he has I sure will. He will be receiving a very large bill from me to fix it if he has. But I’m not going DEFCON 5 on him right now and am hopeful that it’s not going to come to that.
@EssexFells I told him when I picked up the hay ‘I have horses, and they will be coming to the property this year. (We had at this point already established the fact that I was the new owner of a property he had previously hayed) So I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to hay it this year’. Which prompted him to say that it was ok because the crabgrass was getting too thick.
Also, it’s currently almost 8PM and he has not called me back yet. I’ve left a voicemail. So I have not been able to speak with him today. I have a feeling I will not receive a call back.
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Don’t ask me, I don’t think it’s been legal in Canada for many a year, unless it has another name here. that’s why I was clarifying about it killing everything.
OK I am not a farmer but 2,4D is a broadleaf herbicide and crabgrass is a grass. So why spray a broadleaf herbicide to get rid of a grass? there are things that kill crabgrass but I don’t know their names. His story is wonky.
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I know it’s very weird and at the time I thought it was a little excessive to essentially tear up a whole field to eradicate a grass that horses and cows will eat in hay (it’s maybe not the most lovely to look at, but I just got a bale full of it from southern states and my horses happily munched it right down). I also haven’t noticed any crabgrass, but it’s also just coming out of winter.
My current thought to this, after pondering it for a while, is that he mixed up my address with another property he does in the area. Maybe he thought that the old owners were still living there and a different property had sold where I was living. Despite giving him my address and telling him it’s across from a really obvious landmark, we all make mistakes and I’m thinking that’s the error here.
He may have a contract to hay a different property and thought that contract was for mine. That’s the only way I can think that this could have played out in a way that he made a genuine mistake and wasn’t just being a bully.
I’m hoping that’s the answer here, and when I call him he will laugh and apologize and this will all be over. But I’m not going to hold my breath on that.
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I wouldn’t pay this guy a dime. He trespassed on your property and caused damages in the process. I also would not even consider letting him hay any part of your property. Ever.
He has shown you who he is. Believe him.
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Nope.
Don’t make excuses. The flags and poles should have been a giveaway for him.
And depending on what will actually grow back, you might have to warm up a lawyer. You might need to figure out how to sow new grass!
Maybe the rain did you a favor?
He lives there long enough to know whee he made hay.
Don’t second guess yourself here.
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Yikes, what a situation. I think my first priority when I talk to him would be to try to find out what he sprayed. Once you turn hard-ass on him he may refuse to tell you, or lie about it. I’d keep things pleasant at least until I knew that.
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Is it possible the hay man has some senility/dementia setting in? For real?
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I would want to know what he sprayed on the field, and what fertilizer, and how dangerous it is for the contractors to work around it. I wouldn’t offer anything to him, he trespassed, vandalized your property, and I think there was no misunderstanding about his right to come on your property. I think it was a power play on his part, and he thought he could force you to renew his contract.
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