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Farmland values surprisingly stable

The CEO of National Land Realty says he’s surprised farmland values have remained high despite low commodity prices.

Ronnie Richardson tells Brownfield he recently talked to a Kansas farmer about the corn market.

“He had his corn booked at $4.10, and you go ‘what in the world, how could you farm your way out of that?’ But it has not started to effect the price of farmland, it has not begun to drive farmland prices down.”

Interest rates also influence farmland values, and he tells Brownfield Wednesday’s cut by the Federal Reserve should help.

“We feel like that’s going to spark demand to buy some more land. But then when you look at commodity prices, we look at futures six months in advance (and) if there’s not a spike in those commodity prices that’s probably going to offset the demand increase from the reduction in interest rates.”

Richardson says National Land Realty’s sales data through the first two quarters of this year shows the average price per acre across the country remained relatively stable, up about 5 percent.