Blogs

Be the first person to recommend this.
Signs of Weakening Farmland Values Several indicators point to weakening farmland values. Jim Rothermich, ARA, with Iowa Appraisal tells Brownfield he tracks every land auction in the state and says there were at least nine no-sales in February. “That is a drastic increase. A year ago, February 2023, we had two. So that’s how big a difference there is right now.” A no-sale occurs when the property isn’t sold because a reserve price has not been met. Read the Full Story Common Offer to Lease Farmland for Solar Panels: $1,000 an Acre More than half of large U.S. farmers say they have been offered at least $1,000 an acre during discussions ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Farm Family Selling Land and Operations for $2 Billion Fresno’s Assemi family, one of the region’s largest in the ag business, is looking to divest from its farming operations, seeking a buyer for tens of thousands of acres of farmland, as well as Touchstone Pistachio Company, a major nut processor it owns. The move comes as Farid Assemi – who has headed up the family’s farming operations – has faced declining health over the past few years and an intense intra-family legal battle over control of the family’s farming enterprise. Sources with knowledge said the value of the combined entities and their assets sits at roughly $2 billion. Read the Full ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
How Interest Rates Could Impact Farmland Values in 2024 Lately, the news has been full of talk about interest rates. The Federal Reserve’s recent decision to hold interest rates steady at 5.25% to 5.5% comes as a beacon of stability. It signals that perhaps we are approaching the corner on inflation. But now that we’re sitting on high interest rates, what does that mean for the farmland market? Since the onset of rate hikes in March 2022, we’ve seen the landscape of borrowing and investing undergo significant shifts, with the Fed’s actions rippling across various sectors, including agriculture. According to Ty Kreitman of the Federal Reserve Bank of ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Alicia Jupka, ARA, of the Montana Chapter is the focus for this edition of the Member Spotlight series. Alicia, who currently works for the USDA Forest Service, joined the Society in 2022 and quickly worked her way through the Accredited Rural Appraiser (ARA) designation requirements, passing her accreditation exam at the 2023 Annual Conference — just in time to walk the stage with her newly accredited peers! How did you get started with your career in appraisal? I began my appraisal career with the Department of Interior, Appraisal and Valuation Services Office (AVSO) Apprentice Program in 2016. My background is in geology, but my father, who spent his ...
1 comment
Be the first person to recommend this.
Top 20 Landowners in America, According to a New Report Endless miles of vast land stretch as far as the eye can see, but only a few families own much of it. Almost half of all American farmland is owned by people who don't actually farm themselves. Many of these wealthy families make their fortunes in the lumber and forest industry, with millions of acres in timberland throughout the Pacific Northwest. The largest landowners run cattle operations and farms throughout the Great Plains and the West. Some ranches include land leased from the state or government for cattle grazing, while others offer oil and gas revenue. Traditionally, family members hold ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Zuckerberg Gets Into the Cattle Game on Hawaii Ranch In 2019, Facebook banned livestock sales between private individuals. It also began tightening down the hatches, so to speak, banning animal parts, pelts, and skin sales, including furs. That same year, PETA bought shares in Facebook hoping to have more of a say in the filtering process on Facebook. But now, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he’s entering the farming and ranching industry. He made the announcement on the social media platform this week that he has begun raising cattle at his Ko’olau Ranch on Kauai. The ranch has been called a “top-secret compound” by some. ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Foreign-Owned U.S. Farmland Acres Rose More Than 8% in 2022 The number of U.S. farm acres owned by foreign entities grew more than 8% in 2022, though the 43.4 million acres of foreign-owned forest and farm land is just 3.4% of the country's agricultural land, said a government report on Friday. The issue of who owns American farmland, and whether foreign ownership of farmland presents a national security risk, has been hotly discussed in Washington, and some members of Congress have proposed limits on foreign farmland ownership. Foreign entities bought 3.4 million acres of U.S. farmland in 2022, with the biggest increases in Colorado, Alabama and Michigan, ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
AI Brings Transparency to Farmland Values Sometimes the answer to a question is right in front of you, but you can’t see it. Like where is the box of tissues in the storage closet? My husband insists we are out of tissues. I insist there is a box in there, he just needs to keep looking. We bicker about it some more, shouting from opposite sides of the house, until I finally join him at the closet and find it myself…in seconds. Artificial intelligence (AI) is on its way to helping humans efficiently sort through the “storage closet” of farmland data to answer complex questions, such as how much a field is worth and who is likely to buy it. Yet, some say ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
By Claudia Gaglione, Esq., Gaglione, Dolan & Kaplan National Claims Counsel for LIA Administrators & Insurance Services In the world of real estate appraisals, a cardinal rule should always be "Don't Make the Same Mistake Twice!" Unfortunately, there have been recent incidents that underscore the importance of treating each appraisal assignment as a unique endeavor rather than a mere repetition of the past. Problems tend to emerge when appraisers or appraisal firms simply recycle information from older reports into new ones without conducting thorough checks and verifications. It should never be assumed that all the information from previous appraisals ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Andrew Eames Tel. 303.692.1210 Email: aeames@asfmra.org Rural Property Professionals Receive Recognition Awards Given at 2023 ASFMRA Annual Conference in Nashville November 15, 2023 Glendale, Colo. – The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers® (ASFMRA®) honored dozens of rural appraisers, farm managers and consultants today during the 2023 ASFMRA Annual Conference on November 15, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. At the Accreditation and Awards Ceremony, sponsored by Hertz Farm Management, it was announced that 13 ASFMRA members received their Accredited Farm Management (AFM) designation, while one member ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Who’s Buying Nebraska? Corporations, Investors Grabbing Giant Chunks of Nebraska Farmland There’s never a Black Friday discount when a piece of Nebraska farmland hits the market in 2023, be it a fertile field in the Platte River Valley or a vast swath of Sandhills pastureland. The market’s hot. And corporate farms, both in-state and out, are dipping into their deep pockets to claim the increasingly pricey agricultural land they desire. The nine buyers who spent the most money on Nebraska farmland in the past five years are all corporate farming operations, real estate developers or investment firms, an analysis by the Flatwater Free Press found. ...
0 comments

Septic Tanks... Again!!

Be the first person to recommend this.
By Claudia Gaglione, Esq., Gaglione, Dolan & Kaplan National Claims Counsel for LIA Administrators & Insurance Services It may seem like we talk about septic tanks quite frequently, and this is due to the persistent occurrence of claims stemming from septic tank problems. Rural properties often lack connections to public sewers, relying instead on septic tanks for waste management. It's essential for appraisers to dedicate attention to incorporating septic tank-related language into their reports. By doing so, they can provide valuable support when these claims arise, equipping their legal counsel with the necessary information to defend their case ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Staying up-to-date with land value trends and total transactions is imperative for appraisers, farm managers, and other land professionals. Here are findings for land value and transaction history trends within the past 2 years for prime farmland (Illinois and Iowa) and timberland (Georgia) markets in the US. Results were gathered from AcreValue’s online sales records database using the Market Dashboard and property mapping services. Prime Farmland, Examples from Illinois The average sale price per acre of prime farmland* across Illinois has been steadily increasing over the past 2 years (Q4 2021 – present). When data for the prior 2 years is included ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Silicon Valley Billionaires Bully Farmers & Landowners, Sue Over Inflated Land Prices A Silicon Valley group backed by billionaires said it’s acquired all the land it needs to build a utopian city in northern California, after quietly buying more properties in the past month. Flannery Associates, the company behind the California Forever project, spent more than $800 million scooping up land for the project, a buying spree done extremely discreetly over several years which was first revealed in late August by the media. The project has since faced criticism from local officials and residents who fear the impact of their plans on the environment, local ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
This latest ASFMRA Member Spotlight highlights Larissa C. Gordon, ARA, from the New Mexico Chapter. Larissa earned her Accredited Rural Appraiser designation this summer, and is currently working as a farm and ranch appraiser for Ag New Mexico Farm Credit Services, ACA. How did you get started in ag appraisal? I began my ag career as a Credit Analyst in 2014 within the Farm Credit System. It was an eye-opening experience that quickly made me realize how little about agriculture I actually knew. I seized the opportunity to learn from loan officers and the senior appraiser, taking in all I could and asking countless questions. The appraisal side really interested ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Arkansas Orders Syngenta Land Sale Over Chinese Ties Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has ordered Syngenta-owned Northrup King Seed Co. to sell 160 acres of land in the state because of their Chinese roots. Arkansas is giving Syngenta two years to sell its acreage in the northeastern part of the state, stating national security as the primary reason. According to Reuters, the global seed company is unsurprisingly discontent over the order. “This is about where your loyalties lie,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news conference. Syngenta called the decision a “shortsighted action” that will hurt Arkansas farmers. ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Patrick Swayze’s Former Los Angeles Ranch Hits the Market at $4.5 million The year after he was launched into silver screen notoriety in the notable 1983 films “The Outsiders” and “Uncommon Valor,” but still several years before he shimmied and dipped his way to leading man superstardom in “Dirty Dancing,” late actor Patrick Swayze acquired an equestrian ranch on the outskirts of Los Angeles that he named Rancho Bizarro. Swayze, a licensed pilot who died of pancreatic cancer at 57 years old in 2009, raised Arabian horses on the property. Newly listed for $4.5 million, the 4.5-acre spread in Sylmar is tucked into the rolling foothills that mark the northern ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
SOLD! 115 Acres of Missouri Farmland Just Sold For $34,800 Per Acre, Smashing the Previous Record Move over Iowa, there’s a new record farmland sale on the books. A piece of Missouri farmland underwent rapid-fire bidding, which racked the final price tag up to $34,800 per acre. The recent sale now beats out the previous record of $30,000 per acre in Iowa. According to the bill of sale from Dyer and Fenner Auctioneers, the record sale happened last Thursday in Saline County, Mo. Two farmers got in a bidding war, and in just 15 minutes the 115 acres sold for $34,800 an acre, setting the new record. The buyer wasn’t an investor. The winning bid came from ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Summit Carbon Solutions Denied Permit for Carbon Dioxide Pipeline South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission on Monday denied a permit application from Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions to build 495 miles of pipeline through the state to transport captured carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to an underground storage site. The three-member commission voted unanimously to deny the company's application on what was set to be the first day of three weeks of evidentiary hearings on the project. Summit said in a statement that it respects the commission's decision and plans to refine and refile its application. On Friday, the PUC's staff recommended in a ...
0 comments
Be the first person to recommend this.
Proposed Bill Would Increase Exemption for Estate Taxes Congressman Jimmy Panetta of California has reintroduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives with the aim of increasing the 2032A special-use valuation cap for qualified family farms. The intent of the increase is to reduce the number of family farms having to sell farm-related assets to satisfy an estate tax debt. If passed, the higher exemption will have a significant positive impact for farm families in taxable estate brackets. 2032A is a helpful tax valuation for farm families that reduces the value of some farm real property. Rather than having to value farm real property at market ...
0 comments