farmland value
Conservation Reserve rental rates fall by $8 an acre for new land
The USDA will pay an annual rent of $55 an acre on land entering the Conservation Reserve through the recently completed signup, a drop of $8 an acre from the last time landowners idled large tracts of land in the reserve, said a USDA spokeswoman on Wednesday.
First increase in Nebraska farmland values in six years
Farmland in Nebraska is worth 3 percent more than it was a year ago, an average of $2,730 an acre, said an annual report by the University of Nebraska on Wednesday. It was the first increase in agricultural land values in the state since they peaked in 2014.
Senate to vote on funding for ‘heirs property’ initiative
The 2018 farm bill included a provision to make it easier for farmers operating on so-called heirs property — land that passed from one generation of a family to another without a clear title — to obtain a USDA farm number and thus gain access to a multitude of government programs. The Senate is scheduled to vote this afternoon on an amendment by Alabama Sen. Doug Jones to provide $5 million for a re-lending program that would be a step toward resolving ownership issues.
Rise in commodity prices slows decline in farm income, say bankers
Agricultural lenders expect farm income, which weakened in the spring, to continue to decline this summer, although a recent rally in corn, soybean, and wheat prices will act as a stabilizer, said Federal Reserve banks in Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis on Thursday.
Pulled by western states, U.S. cropland values edge upward
Amid decline in commodity prices, farmland values could fall too
U.S. farm real estate values rode the express elevator to the penthouse during the commodity boom, gaining an average $860 an acre in five years. They are still at elevated levels despite the sharply lower farm income of recent years but may drift lower in the near term, according to two examinations of the farm economy.
Farm income below $70 billion — a new average for U.S. agriculture?
The USDA forecast net farm income of $69.4 billion this year. If accurate, the total would be the third year of net income below $70 billion since 2015. “We’re starting to see ... a new average coming out here,” said USDA economist Carrie Litkowski on Wednesday.
Farmland values up slightly in Midwest, down a bit in Plains
Ag bankers in the Midwest say farmland values were steady overall in 2018 and rose by 1 percent in the final three months of the year, reported the Chicago Federal Reserve on Thursday in its quarterly AgLetter.
U.S. cropland values flat for fourth year
With a nationwide average of $4,130 an acre this year, the value of U.S. cropland is nearly unchanged from the 2014 average of $4,100 an acre, according to an annual USDA survey of producers.
First rise in farmland values in Midwest in three years
Agricultural bankers reported a 1 percent rise in “good” farmland values in 2017 in a survey by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, which said the productivity of midwestern farmland had helped stabilize prices. It was the first increase in values since 2014.
Iowa farmland values rebound after three-year decline
An Iowa State University survey said the average acre of Iowa farmland rose in value by 2 percent in 2017, to $7,326, ending the first three-year decline in values since the agricultural crisis of the mid-1980s.
Farmland values edge downward in Midwest and Plains
The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank says the prolonged decline in farm income pushed farmland values lower in the central and northern Plains, "but at a modest pace" of 3 percent for non-irrigated land during the summer. The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said land values, although relatively stable for the past year, fell 1 percent during the summer.
Farmland prices rise 5 percent in Britain over the summer
Property consultants Strutt and Parker said the price of cropland in England rose by 5 percent in the three months ending on Sept. 30, reversing a two-year decline, reported Agrimoney.
U.S. cropland prices stable for fourth year amid ag sector slump
Farm income plummeted with the collapse of the commodity boom in 2013 yet cropland, usually a farmer's biggest asset and the foundation of a farm's financial health, is as valuable as ever, the USDA says. Producers are making enough money to pay their mortgages, aided in part by low interest rates on the loans, while the perennial hunger among farmers, ranchers and investors to buy land is bolstering prices on the national level, although the Midwest and northern Plains feel the pain of lower commodity prices.
U.S. land retirement rises and falls with commodity prices
Congress has adjusted the enrollment cap on the Conservation Reserve, which pays landowners an annual rent to idle fragile land, in every farm bill since the program was created in 1985. With commodity prices in a trough, there are calls for a sizable increase in the reserve, a step that could affect wheat production far more than corn or soybeans according to a back-of-the-envelope estimate.
FAPRI forecasts stability in farm income while land values slip
After suffering a 31-percent drop in net cash income in three years, the U.S. farm sector will see stable to modestly rising income in coming years, while farmland values will fall 11 percent before leveling off at the end of this decade, says the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. The University of Missouri think tank says farm debt will rise, as will indicators of financial stress, such as the debt-to-asset ratio.
New farm bill should be based on need, not cost, says House chairman
The four-year slump in farm income is creating "real potential for a crisis in rural America," said House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway at the first House hearing for the 2018 farm bill. "A good farm bill," he said, "will require resources," meaning money to offset low commodity prices and unfair subsidies overseas.
Ag bankers say slump in farmland values will continue this year
Weak farm income pulled down farmland values across the Midwest and much of the Plains as 2016 closed and ag bankers expect prices to slide again before the spring planting season, said Federal Reserve banks in Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis. The Chicago Fed said land values have fallen for three years in a row in its five-state district in the heart of the Corn Belt.
What Ohio’s data-center boom means for the state’s rural communities
In FERN's latest story, produced with Switchyard Magazine, reporter Mya Frazier explores the damage—physical, economic, and emotional—done to Ohio's rural communities by the explosion of data centers and the electricity generation needed to power those centers.