cropland values

Cropland values have climbed for four years in a row, but three out of four farmers expect cash rental rates in 2025 to remain the same this year, said a Purdue University poll on Tuesday. The monthly Ag Economy Barometer said the rest of producers were split fairly evenly between those who expected an increase and those expecting a decrease in rental rates.

U.S. cropland is worth an average of $5,570 an acre, an increase of $1,510, or 37 percent, since 2020, said the USDA's annual Land Values report. The surge in land values accompanied the four highest years of net farm income, a gauge of profitability, for American farmers.

One in five U.S. farmers has actively discussed leasing land for a solar project — twice as many as in February, according to a survey released by Purdue University on Tuesday. Developers offered high payments in many cases and, overall, 6 percent of landowners have signed a solar energy lease, according to the monthly Ag Economy Barometer.

Cropland values rose by 7.2 percent in the northern Plains this summer, said agricultural bankers in a quarterly survey by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. Land values rose even as farm income declined from last summer, lenders said, due to high production costs and lower commodity prices, with a decline expected for this fall, too.