Farmland prices are at a record level, a level we have not seen in several years.
Some of the main driving factors include extra CFAP payments and higher grain prices. This puts farmers and ranchers in a good financial position and led to competitive bidding for farmland.
The higher prices seem to spread around most of rural America.
According to Randy Dickhut with Farmers National Company, “The heart of the Corn Belt, the heart of the Midwest, the good cropland where we’ve seen the most change, and that can go from North Dakota into Kansas and east and west from Ohio into Nebraska... but it’s the good cropland that’s in the most demand because farmers buy 70-80 percent of the land that comes up for sale in a lot of cases.”
An ag economist says that harvested land overseas is expanding faster than in the U.S.
The Ohio State economist says that the U.S. area has been relatively unchanged since 2003, but farmers overseas expanded harvested areas of grains and oilseeds by 18 million acres a year.
The economist says that it poses an interesting risk for climate change policies, where the government spends a large amount of money on programs that accomplish little or nothing.
Related:
Canadian farmland values continue to rise
Protecting farmland: the positives and negatives of urban sprawl
It is a seller’s market for farmland right now, but less supply of good cropland
Ag Economic Insights discusses the trends to look for in the 2021 farmland market