Crops are an odd piece of property. They’re personal property when harvested, but are technically part of the land between planting and harvest, like a fixture. When the seller sells a farm, the whole of the crop still in the soil should technically transfer as a fixture. By law, instead, the crops are treated as personal property for transfer and inheritance purposes and are known as “emblements.” Under ORS 91.320, a farmer has a “right to emblements.” The law states that a person in possession, when leasing or occupying the land for the purpose of farming or agriculture, has the right to freely access the premises to cultivate and harvest or gather crops or produce of the soil planted or sown by that person after the termination of the lease or occupancy, as long as the planting or sowing occurred before the service of notice to quit [lease termination].
In the real estate context, this means that you must be particularly cognizant when selling farm or vineyard land, because any tenant-farmers on that property retain a practically unfettered right of access to care for their crops. Your farmland buyers must understand that this means they may be seeing the previous tenants for some while after the actual lease is terminated. Depending on the agricultural product, e.g. Christmas tree farms, the growing period can be quite lengthy and the tenant may be cultivating it for some while before harvest.