The choice between purchasing land or entering into a long-term lease is analyzed using a deterministic cash analysis both from the tenant's and landlord's perspective. It is less financially stressful to start farming through a lease agreement than by purchasing the assets. The lease period of landlord indifference between these choices is determined for each combination of input variables. / Land value and income forecasting models are developed and presented. These models are based on two similar but conceptually different statistical tests. Each test results in different forecasting models which has implications for the use of such models in the future. / Consumption-based asset pricing models are tested using agricultural rental income. These models, although appealing both intuitively and theoretically are found wanting in terms of their formulation as the model results are highly sensitive to the data employed. This concern increases with the level of data aggregation.

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