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Indiana farmland values up, way up

According to the latest Purdue Farmland Value survey, since 2011, farmland values were up from 14.3 to 18.1 percent, depending on land quality. Cash rents increased between 12.8 and 15.2 percent.

“This is another year in a string of years where we have had increases of close to 20 percent and so over the last three years we’ve seen a quite significant rise in farmland values in the state,” said Craig Dobbins, Purdue Extension ag economist. “This is the second year in a row that cash rents, that there’s been a pretty strong upward movement, so the farmland market in terms of values and rents continues to just steam right along.”

According to the latest survey, statewide the average value of bare cropland in Indiana ranged from $5,013 for poor quality land to $7,704 per acre for top-quality land.

Dobbins credits robust net farm incomes, favorable interest rates, strong farmland demand and a limited supply of farmland for sale as reasons for farmland values and cash rents being higher.

A full assessment of the survey results and more information about respondents and data gathering methods are available in the August 2012 edition of the Purdue Agricultural Economics Report.