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Cash rental rates generally higher

An extension educator says USDA’s latest cash rental rate data varies greatly based on location.

Jon LaPorte is a Farm Business Management Educator with Michigan State University Extension.

“We’ve noticed that we didn’t really see a standard where everybody was going up or everybody was going down,” he says.

LaPorte tells Brownfield data each year contains a mix of annual and long-term lease data, and its voluntary nature comes with limitations.

He says USDA’s County Cash Rental Rates should not be used as a baseline for farmers, but rather “A good starting point for the conversation of where the averages are, what makes sense for our field and our productivity, what we’re willing to pay, especially as we go to talk to the landowner,” LaPorte suggests.

U.S. farmers paid an average of $237 per acre for irrigated cropland in 2023, up $10 from last year.  Cash rent on non-irrigated cropland increased $7 from 2022 to $142 per acre.

For non-irrigated fields, Michigan cash rental rates increased in 36 counties but decreased in 22 countries.  The highest reported rental rates were in Huron County at $220 per acre for non-irrigated and $301 for irrigated land in Cass County.