Special Report
Illinois ag lender: land not changing hands quickly
A Midwest agriculture lender says farmland owners are hanging on to what they have. Farm Credit Illinois Chief Operating Officer Aaron Johnson tells Brownfield land prices have fallen about 4 percent since last year, but he says, for now, the general trend is stable.
“And I think it’ll be stable until we get a better idea of what this future market’s going to be and what the income’s going to do,” Johnson told Brownfield Ag News at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois.
Johnson adds that land is not changing hands at a very high rate.
“From a diversity strategy, the people that are holding that real estate don’t have any big impetus to sell,” said Johnson. “We still have a lot of farmers doing really well that want to continue to grow, so there’s still a strong demand, even with the tighter margins, for the farmland market in the Midwest.”
From a financial standpoint, Johnson says farmers are still credit worthy, but cash reserves, he says, are eroding.
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