Don't know about the Chicago area, but here's what we do.

We live on 120 acres, only about 20 tillable for farming purposes. We practically have to beg our neighbor, a REAL farmer, to farm it for us. The 20 acres is so teeny tiny that it's really not worth it to him to do the work. But he does, really just as a favor to us. Ever hear that song that goes "give me 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around"? Well, modern farming equipment is almost that big.

We do it on a "shares" basis. Whatever the crop yields in $$, he gets half, we keep half. Same on expenses (fertilizer, seed, herbicide, etc.) We rotate yearly between corn and soybeans.

This year, because we had such a terrible drought, we lost $$. Last year we profited less than $1,000 total.

You might get more replies if you post this on the "farming" forum . . . . at this same website.

I had the same experience in Canada, where a ten acre field was useless to potato farmers. It turned out to have very little value when I sold it, also.

Im not sure but we had a case here where they rezoned land that was on a gravel road from Ag to resid. and the guy at the end of the road got sued for having a few goats and lost.The guy had lived there for years and never realized they had changed the zoning until a new neighbor complained about the 5 goats on his 17 acres.