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ASFMRA AgNews - July 18, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 3 days ago
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USDA Crop Progress Report Grades Corn Condition Slightly Better The U.S. corn and soybean crops made slight improvements vs. a week ago, but remain behind five-year averages for silking and emergence, according to the USDA’s weekly Crop Progress Report released Monday. The overall condition of the corn crop is rated at 58% good to excellent in the top 18 corn producing states, compared with 57% a week ago. USDA pegged just 17% of the corn crop was in the silk stage, compared with a 42% five-year average. As of Sunday, Illinois had just 19% of its corn crop in the silk growth stage, Indiana 10% and Iowa 8%. 110˚F Weather To Take Toll on Late-Planted ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - July 9, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 12 days ago
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Perspectives on Corn Belt Farmland Values An update last month from Iowa State University (ISU) Extension’s Wendong Zhang and Steven Johnson (“Agricultural professionals expect lower land values and stable crop prices“) stated that, “Over 270 agricultural professionals attended the 2019 ISU Soil Management Land Valuation (SMLV) Conference this past May…Over 150 participants provided their estimates of future land values as well as future cash corn and soybean prices in their primary county in Iowa via an online Qualtrics survey. Where Will Values Go? On the Edge: Farmland Values Treading Water The future of the farmland market continues to be ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - July 2, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 20 days ago
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Corn Acres May Not Fall As Much As Forecast USDA's last Crop Progress report shows 92% of corn is now planted and 77% of soybeans. Farmers from across the midwest are weighing in on those numbers asking what 92% really means. During an interview with AgDay's Clinton Griffiths, Sam Hudson of Cornbelt Marketing stressing that planted acres are an unknown. "Well until we see an actual printed number from USDA you almost have to focus on just the production potential in general," says Hudson. "As opposed to [here's] what I think acres are and that's where I think yield could be." What Will Happen to Corn Acres? Arlan Suderman: USDA Should Have Never ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - June 24, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 27 days ago
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USDA To Allow Farmers To Harvest Prevent Plant Cover Crops Sept. 1 As the growing season marches on and farmers are expected to file prevent plant claims on a record number of acres, USDA is easing cover crop harvest rules to ensure livestock producers have adequate feed supplies. In 2019, farmers who planted cover crops on prevent plant acres will be permitted to hay, graze or chop those fields on Sept. 1 instead of Nov. 1. “We recognize farmers were greatly impacted by some of the unprecedented flooding and excessive rain this spring and we made this one-year adjustment to help farmers with the tough decisions they are facing this year,” said USDA undersecretary ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - June 18, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 06-17-2019
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On the Edge: Farmland Values Treading Water … for Now The future of the farmland market continues to be a guessing game. So far, values have been supported by low interested rates and a strong buyer pool for limited land for sale. But numerous financial metrics point to a deterioration of farmers’ financial health, according to a semi-annual market update from Farmers National Company. “As 2019 unfolds, the land market will remain on edge watching farm finances, weather, and trade issues,” says Randy Dickhut, senior vice president of real estate operations for Farmers National. “The outcome of these and other unknowns will guide which direction land values ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - June 11, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 06-11-2019
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Rules for Planting Cover Crops or Second Crops with Prevent Plant A recent Farm Journal Pulse indicates that about one-third of U.S. farmers will take prevent plant this season. With the potential for millions of acres to be barren you might be wondering what you can do to prevent erosion or provide feed opportunities for cattle. Know the rules before you drop a seed into the ground after prevent plant. This is one area with no “gray” area, according to Cara Riekhof, agent with Crop Insurance Solutions, Inc., in Higginsville, Mo. Get to Know the Rules. Hot Springs Hemp Company First to Secure Farming in Arkansas New Age Hemp LLC of Hot Springs ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - June 4, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 06-04-2019
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12 Great Plains Bankers Share Economic Insights Farm income and agricultural credit conditions continue to deteriorate, according to the latest Ag Credit Survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “With low income weighing on farm finances, the pace of decline in farm loan repayment rates increased slightly,” write Nathan Kauffman, vice president and Omaha branch executive, and Ty Kreitman, assistant economist, for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “In addition, carry-over debt increased again for many borrowers and bankers continued to restructure debt and deny a modest amount of new loan requests due to cash flow shortages.” Read what ...
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New ASFMRA Textbook Updates Appraisal Methods

By ASFMRA Press posted 05-30-2019
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The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers® (ASFMRA®) released their new textbook, Valuing Rural America: Foundations of Data Analysis. This new textbook expands and updates methodology for appraisers of all career stages and experience levels and takes the body of knowledge in rural appraising to a new level. Chief writer, Justin Bierschwale, ARA, MAI explained, “Most of the published literature in the appraisal profession deals with urban appraisal topics. Few resources address rural property appraisal, and those that have been published really focus on production agriculture.” Today’s appraisers also deal with mountain and recreational land ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - May 29, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 05-29-2019
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Experts: SGMA Begins to Affect Land Values By now one would suspect that the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is “old news,” something that is firmly ensconced in the minds of farmers and real estate investors as the first of several deadlines loom. Nevertheless, I understand from rural appraisers attending the recent Outlook Conference – the annual meeting of the California chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers – that SGMA was apparently not on the minds of everyone considering a farm real estate transaction last year. Each year the California chapter publishes its Trends Report, a synopsis of farm ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - May 21, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 05-20-2019
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6 Drivers Keeping the Farmland Market Steady Doug Hensley, president of real estate services with Hertz farm management, recently talked with Chip Flory on AgriTalk and gave an overall update on the farmland market. Hensley gives six drivers keeping the farmland market firm despite so much uncertainty in ag. Annual numbers are a better barometer than quarterly surveys. “I really look at the annual numbers maybe a little more closely,” Hensely says. “With the quarterly numbers, it’s a survey of people’s attitudes one sale to the next which can really influence things.” He continues to say that looking from April 2018 to April 2019, the farmland market ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - May 14, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 05-13-2019
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Land Values in Florida Rock Solid In March, Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Real Estate hosted its annual Lay of the Land Conference in Orlando. Each year during the conference, Dean Saunders, founder of the Lakeland-based company, releases his “Lay of the Land Report,” which provides property values based upon verified sales for the previous year. Florida’s land market values remained strong in 2018, bolstered by the nearly 1,000 people moving into the state daily and an unemployment rate below 4%. He noted the strong economy and no state income tax is a big draw. People want jobs, water, and sunshine. “The rising tide of our growing population floats ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - May 7, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 05-06-2019
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Farmland Values Continue to Rise in Canada Average farmland values in Canada continue to rise according to Canada's lead agricultural lender. Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) 2018 Farmland Values Report shows the average value of Canadian farmland increased 6.6 per cent in 2018, following gains of 8.4 per cent in 2017 and 7.9 per cent in 2016. Alberta saw a 7.4 per cent increase in the value of its farm acres, which FCC says is a relativity stable trend considering the 7.3 per cent increase in 2017. However, Southern Alberta saw the highest increase in value compared to other regions of the Province with a 12.7 per cent jump. FCC says there was strong demand ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - April 30, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 04-29-2019
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What Could Dampen Farmland Values? A laundry list of factors can support or sink farmland values. In the past few years, values have been surprisingly resilient. Looking forward, however, prices may lean lower, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In 2018, the spread between returns to farmland owners and benchmark interest rates narrowed to its lowest level in more than a decade in the Tenth Federal Reserve District. At the same time, farmland sales increased in some states for the first time in several years. “Together, the reduced spread and indications of increased sales in some regions suggest the potential for ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - April 23, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 04-22-2019
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Floods' Impact on Land Values Floods Affect Specific Farm Values, but not Overall Trend Farmers and ranchers hit by March's flooding and blizzard are still trying to assess their damage. Land values will be affected, but only specific to the property and its damage. "In 1993 flooding on the Mississippi, I had a friend who farmed near a levee that broke and he had 30 acres of sand dumped on his property. With a trackhoe and bulldozer, he got some of it off, but some just became wasteland," recalled Randy Dickhut, senior vice president with Farmers National Company in Omaha. How did the floods affect farmland? Ag Census:  Farmland Receding in California ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - April 16, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 04-15-2019
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North Dakota Land Values and Rents Show Some Strength North Dakota Land Values and Rents Show Some StrengthNorth Dakota cropland value increased nearly 2 percent, according to a January survey the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands commissioned. An earlier report from a June 2018 U.S. Department of Agriculture survey showed no change in North Dakota cropland values from the previous year. “The January survey reflected the impact of very strong yields and federal aid to producers in the form of market facilitation payments to offset the impact of Chinese tariffs on U.S. farm commodities,” explains Andrew Swenson, North Dakota State University Extension ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - April 9, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 04-08-2019
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Farmland Values Are Stable Despite Income and Trade Turmoil Across the Farm Belt, cropland values generally are holding steady in the fifth year of low commodity prices and are bolstering farm finances. Economist David Oppedahl of the Chicago Federal Reserve says stellar yields are a key reason in the Midwest. Near-record corn and soybean yields keep revenue flowing. Land values in the central Midwest, steady overall during 2018, were expected to remain strong into planting season this year, according to ag bankers surveyed by the Chicago Fed. The value of “good” farmland in the district rose by 1% in the closing months of 2018. The St. Louis Federal Reserve, ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - April 2, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 04-01-2019
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Farmland Prices Reach Historic Highs in Upper Midwest Farmland prices reach historic highs in Upper MidwestEighty-nine acres of farmland sold for $6,950 per acre in Brown County, 74 acres sold for $7,145 per acre in Martin County and 80 acres sold for $7,563 per acre in Sibley County — all in the span of a week in February in southwest Minnesota. Farmland values leveled off after 2014, but acreage is still selling at historically high prices in the Upper Midwest. And that’s a good thing for Minnesota farmers, who endured their least profitable year in three decades in 2018 thanks to low grain, meat and milk prices, a trade war with China and bad weather. ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - March 26, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 03-25-2019
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Farmland Values Stable, But Risks to Outlook Remain Farmland values remained stable in the fourth quarter, according to the Tenth District Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions. Declines in the value of non irrigated and irrigated cropland remained modest across the District, and declined only 3 percent from last year. On average, cropland values also declined at a slower pace in 2018 than in the previous two years. Ranch land values increased slightly for the second quarter in a row, the first consecutive increase in farmland values since 2015. Furthermore, most of the strength in ranch land values across the Kansas City, Missouri, district were ...
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Illinois Farmland Values, Lease Rates Holding Steady

By ASFMRA Press posted 03-21-2019
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Farmland values and rents in Illinois are holding steady across most of the state according to the 2019 Farmland Values and Lease Trends Report released today by the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. The information was discussed at the group’s annual Land Value Conference held here. “2018 brought continued challenges for Illinois agriculture with increasing grain supplies and wide price variation as a result of the most productive soybean crop ever produced by the state,” according to David Klein, AFM, ALC, with First Mid Ag Services, Bloomington, and overall chair of the organization’s annual Land Values Project. “Most farm ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - March 19, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 03-18-2019
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Farmers Dig Deep To Weather Slumping Ag Economy, But Don’t Call It A Crisis Farmers Dig Deep To Weather Slumping Ag Economy, But Don’t Call It A CrisisFarm income has taken a long, hard fall, dropping 50 percent since hitting a high point in 2013. Add to that near-record levels of farm debt, and you have a recipe for financial stress. But while economists say they can see storm clouds building, it’s not a full-blown crisis. That’s because relatively few farms have been pushed past the breaking point into Chapter 12 bankruptcy — or, worse, into losing the farm entirely. Nebraska farmer Ben Steffen felt it worst with last year’s milk prices. Sales from his ...
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