With 20/20 hindsight, nearly everyone today laments the fact they weren’t more aggressive in the land market a few years back. The perfect storm was in place – ethanol subsidies made corn the new gold rush, while soaring debt and a sluggish economy was driving investment dollars into commodities and better inflation hedges....More
The starting point for negotiating leases is usually to review the rate charged last year. Until last year, many ranchers looked to the annual Bluestem Pasture Release, published by the Kansas Department of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). This survey collected pasture lease rates across the 14-county Flint Hills region in Kansas and served as a benchmark for Plains cattlemen....More
U.S. ag land prices have increased steadily over the last decade, leading experts and landowners to question whether the high values are sustainable....More
A study conducted by South Dakota State University (SDSU) shows agricultural land values are booming again in South Dakota, charting a 16.5% increase in 2010-2011, the third-largest since SDSU economists began tracking the farm real estate market in 1991....More
Ranchland values climbed sharply in the first quarter of 2011, rising 11% above year-ago levels, according to a survey of ag credit conditions by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City...More
Since 2000, U.S. farmland values have roughly doubled in nominal terms and have risen a whopping 58% after factoring in inflation, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which recently hosted a symposium, “Don’t Bet the Farm — Assessing the Boom in U.S. Farmland Prices.”...More
A lot of the experts have been predicting $8/bu. corn, not necessarily because they believe corn will be that high but because the market will need to push that high to ensure enough acres are planted in corn. The gurus refer to this as “buying acres.” By the way, recent calf prices are the market’s attempt to buy more cows to go into production as well...More
