Randy Dickhut is the Senior Vice President of Real Estate Operations for the Farmers National Company in Nebraska. While Iowa understandably gets a lot of attention, higher farmland prices are spreading to other agricultural states.

“Iowa gets a lot of attention and rightly so; this past year’s increase in land prices auctions and sales, it probably has the strongest percentage and the prices that are being reached, sometimes for specific auctions, they’re not all those record-breakers which capture that attention, but there are other areas that are also reaching some new high prices,” said Dickhut. “Overall, the demand in many places for good cropland is strong, and farmers and investors are willing to bid it up.”

Dickhut says those higher prices began showing up in other states this spring.

“We had a $12,000-plus sale in eastern Nebraska here, which was very strong, and then this fall, we’ve had as I referenced the one in northeast Nebraska with irrigated ground that sold for $12,900 to $13,400: I believe it was, per acre, $13,400. And so, I mean, that’s just strong for Nebraska, in general. We had a $14,000 sale here in eastern Nebraska and the Omaha area, so, whether it’s for farming or development or other purposes, there’s demand for land.”

Dickhut adds the trend will likely continue into next year.

“I think it will continue here through the fall sales and early-winter season and on into the spring probably, and then we’ll start assessing what the general economy is, and interest rates, and commodity prices, and decide if that will continue into next summer a year from now.”

For more information, visit farmersnational.com.

(Story courtesy of NAFB)

Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons