Agriculture Law

Idaho’s farmers and ranchers are subject to a wide range of state and federal regulations. In addition to Federal farm programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), farmers and ranchers often also deal with the United States Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as well as environmental regulation administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers. The State of Idaho also regulates many farm and ranch activities through the Department of Agriculture, Department of Water Resources, Department of Lands, and Department of Environmental Quality. Our experience with all of these agencies enables us to provide high quality, comprehensive legal representation to Idaho farmers and ranchers.

Effectively protecting the interests of Idaho’s farmers and ranchers takes a unique combination of business acumen and expertise in land and water rights, government permitting and regulation, tax and estate planning, and employment law. We’ve been doing it for many years, representing some of Idaho’s largest farm and ranch families and agri-businesses in everything from business transactions, buying and selling property, acquiring and managing water rights, succession planning, and effectively navigating government regulations. If you can benefit from assistance with any aspect of your agricultural operation, we can help.

• Gehring Agribusiness
• Driscoll Brothers
• Koompin Brothers Farms
• Jorgensen Farms
• Gibbs Farms
• Harris Farms
• Lloyd Brothers
• Bauer Farms

Irrigation water is the lifeblood of farming and ranching in Idaho, and nobody understands Idaho water law better than we do. We frequently provide comprehensive water rights audits analyses complete with bound maps and water right reports to give our clients a clear understanding of the land they can irrigate and a tool they can use to operate their farm or ranch more efficiently. We also assist with transferring water rights, renting water, and other actions to improve agricultural productivity.

Keeping a farm or ranch in the family requires tax and estate planning strategies that are tailored to farming and ranching. Succession planning for farms and ranches simply involves unique issues that most people, and most estate planning attorneys, do not face. This is especially true where some of the heirs are engaged in operating the farm or ranch while others are not. Our estate planning attorneys have a wealth of experience to draw from gleaned from decades of developing succession and estate plans for large and small farm and ranch operations. We understand that transferring the farm with a minimum of tax liability is no more important than maintaining strong and loving family relations, and we have the experience to guide you through this process successfully.

Because of our extensive experience with real estate, water rights, and agriculture law, we frequently represent buyers of farm and ranch land in Idaho.