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Michigan cash rents post widespread results

Michigan cash rental values are unchanged this year despite farmland values in the state seeing the largest increase nationwide.

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

“It really is quite a mixture across the state,” he says. “It’s really hard to pinpoint down that one area because of higher production maybe went up versus another area of low production, it’s really widespread and kind of even across the board.”

He says 19 counties in Michigan reported farmland values for the first time in at least two years, 27 percent of the total counties in the USDA survey.

The counties with the highest rental values were Huron County at $237 per acre for non-irrigated cropland and St. Joseph County for $321 of irrigated cropland.

LaPorte encourages farmers to use MSU’s land rent calculators to help estimate what they can afford.

“Which can also help when you’re negotiating with the landowner to talk about, here’s our crop plan and cost this year of these leases, here’s what you can expect if this plan continues forward, and gives an idea if adjustments need to be made, how that rent might be adjusted as well,” he explains.

He says cash rental rates are likely to remain stable moving forward, given the current farm economics.