Farm Land Value Reports Confusing Buyers & Sellers

The USDA just released their land values summary for 2016 > USDA Land Survey and some of the numbers are a bit surprising, at least relative to other surveys we’ve recently seen, e.g., the Indiana Land Values report published by Purdue University > Indiana Land Value Survey.  Both groups used the June ’15 to June ’16 time period,…

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The Hopes and Dreams For Agriculture, Washington Style

As they do every four years, the political parties have released their platforms on agriculture. And as those of us with an interest in farming and landownership do every four years, we scour these papers to see if there is anything that might impact how we do business. Below is the most recent synopsis on…

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Farmland Values Remain Steady… For Now

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago just released their 2015 First Quarter Agricultural Newsletter, and their survey of agricultural bankers during this time period showed little change in the average price of good farmland across the six state region. Surprisingly, especially considering the current prices of corn and soybeans, over half of these lenders believed…

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2015 Farmland Returns

Forecasted profits for 2015 continue to look bleak for farmers and they will more than likely see the lowest returns of the last 5 years.  A new article posted by Gary Schnitkey on the University of Illinois’ Farm Doc Daily (Farmland Returns in 2015) analyzes the hard numbers and where the financial outlook may end…

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The Revised Agricultural Conservation Compliance Regulations

As part of the 1985 Farm Bill, the Congress implemented rules for farmers and landowners to follow if they wished to be receive government farm program payments in the future. These regulations focused on areas that were considered the most environmentally fragile – wetlands and highly erodible soils. Not all farmers were happy with these…

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