The reason I'm shying away from the farmer who had the corn in the field in the first place is because I feel he should have finished the job like every other year after harvesting the corn


If he wasn't going to farm the place again why would you expect him to get the field ready to plant for the next year? Nobody that rents ground ever does that. It's up to the person that is going to be farming the ground the next year to work the ground. Being on the other side landlords often expect way more than a farmer would even do for his own ground to rent it. It's not a privilege for a farmer to rent ground. It's his business. These small fields are a pain to do, esp. when you're only getting a couple bucks a bushel for corn. Not trying to be mean here just remember there are two sides to the farming issue.