Blogs

ASFMRA AgNews - February 18, 2020

By ASFMRA Press posted yesterday
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Will 2020 Be The Year The Land Market Tumbles? The land market in 2019 continued the plateau trend of the past several years in which the supply of agricultural land for sale on the market remained lower than average and prices for good quality cropland held mostly steady. Looking ahead to next year, will financial stress from lower commodity prices and poor harvests in some regions cause prices to decline? Farmland sale activity in the first part of 2019 was slower than it had been for some time with late spring and early summer especially void of farms for sale. Planting delays and prevented plantings contributed to the lackluster activity.  Read the ...
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Member Spotlight: Dr. Wendong Zhang

By ASFMRA Press posted yesterday
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Dr. Wendong Zhang is our ASFMRA Iowa Chapter Academic Vice President. Describe your experience and education related to the property professional field. With many helping from the Iowa Chapter, I teach a Rural Property Appraisals course at ISU and lead the annual ISU Land Value Survey. In my Ph.D. study at Ohio State, I examined how urban influences got capitalized into nearby farmland values. Describe what led you to become a chapter member of the Iowa ASFMRA Chapter and why you remain a member. I have the privilege to serve on the board of the Iowa Chapter as the Academic Vice President. I have benefited a lot from interactions with chapter ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - February 4, 2020

By ASFMRA Press posted 16 days ago
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Hemp Takes Hold Broad-shouldered and barefoot, Brian Lyda trots into a rain-softened 6-acre hemp field near Hendersonville, in mountainous western North Carolina. Mud is splattered up his calves as he turns back a fourth of the way into the rows. “This plant loves attention but not too much attention, if that makes sense,” says Lyda, gesturing to the 2-foot-high hemp plants growing under plastic in rows 6 feet apart. After all, hemp – and its cousin, marijuana – can grow and thrive on their own in road ditches. Read the Full Story Here. Report: Ag Conditions Not as Bad Now as in 1980s The overall U.S. agricultural economy has slumped in recent ...
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Paying It Forward, ASFMRA Style

By ASFMRA Press posted 23 days ago
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Paying It Forward,  ASFMRA Style  By Rex Wilcox, AFM Thanks to the ASFMRA and Iowa Chapter awards committees for the D. Howard Doane award I received at the 2019 Louisville convention.  I appreciate the recognition from my peers.  There are many people deserving credit for their input to my career, making it possible to be considered for the award. My farm management experience began in 1973 with Stalcup Ag Service at an opportune time, which allowed becoming acquainted and able to work with many influential ASFMRA members. My first contact with a farm manager was Bob Walters of Hertz who sold my father a farm.  I was impressed with Bob and curious ...
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Qualifying Education in Texas 2020

By Mrs. Carmen Bierschwale posted 26 days ago
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The Texas Chapter will be offering Qualifying Education over the course of 2020.  Justin Bierschwale, ARA will be the lead instructor.  Sales Comparison Approach | February 24-27 Cost Approach | June 1-4 Income Approach | August 10-13 If you have a trainee in need of Qualifying education, we hope you will find these course offerings advantageous. Should these offerings be successful in Texas, the Chapter’s goal is to offer both Qualifying and Accreditation education in a systematic manner. Please help spread the word.   These offerings are open to EVERYONE in need of qualifying education. Refer to the promotional flyer for all hotel, travel ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - January 20, 2020

By ASFMRA Press posted 30 days ago
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Will 2020 Be the Year the Land Market Tumbles? The land market in 2019 continued the plateau trend of the past several years during which the supply of agricultural land for sale on the market remained lower than average and prices for good quality cropland held mostly steady. Looking ahead to next year, will financial stress from lower commodity prices and poor harvests in some regions cause prices to decline? Farmland sale activity in the first part of 2019 was slower than it had been for some time with late spring and early summer especially void of farms for sale. Planting delays and prevented plantings contributed to the lackluster activity. Read ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - January 7, 2020

By ASFMRA Press posted 01-06-2020
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Recapping the 2019 Land Market The land market in 2019 continued the plateau trend of the past several years in which the supply of ag land on the market remained lower than average and prices for good quality cropland held fairly steady. Farmland sale activity in the first part of the year was slower than it had been for some time with late spring and early summer especially void of farms for sale. The historically delayed and prevented planting season had much to do with the lower activity during that time. Land values in 2019 once again bucked the prevailing depressed mood in agriculture to hold steady or even increase slightly in some instances except ...
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ASFMRA Blog - 2019 Legislative Update

By ASFMRA Press posted 01-02-2020
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There are currently a number of issues impacting the ASFMRA from Washington, D.C., particularly for appraisers. One of the biggest hot button issues revolves around “evaluations.” What are they and who is allowed to do them? USPAP briefly mentions evaluations but instructs appraisers to call them “restricted appraisal reports.” That’s all well and good, but there are a lot of potential customers that don’t want the terms “restricted” and/or “appraisal” in their work file. They simply want a number. Read the full blog post here
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ASFMRA AgNews - December 24, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 12-23-2019
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Near Cities, Land Owners And Urban Farmers Confront Pressure From Development Across the Midwest, development in urban areas is increasingly putting pressure on the value of land that could be used for food production or has historically been in agriculture. One private business that rented a plot to local agriculture suddenly sold it this year.  Even though the agricultural economy has been struggling for the past few years with low prices for corn and soybeans, weather challenges, the tariff exchange with China and other trade uncertainties, land values have stabilized. Read more here. Where Christmas Trees Come From Every year, millions ...
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ASFMRA Blog - Management and Real Estate Balance

By ASFMRA Press posted 12-10-2019
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For decades, farm management companies across the United States have also served as real estate brokers. Our firm started offering real estate brokerage services all the way back in the 1950’s. Today, the largest farm management companies have very significant real estate brokerage operations. How do these firms balance the workflow and focus? After all, these services compete for a staff member’s time and focus, and there exists some potential for conflict of interest. For the rest of this blog post by Howard Halderman, AFM, click here
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ASFMRA AgNews - December 10, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 12-06-2019
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Farmland Rents Stay Up Despite Low Crop Prices With another harvest behind them, farmers are beginning to sit down with their landlords to look at farm land rental contracts for the year ahead. In most cases, it’s the landlords who hold the cards. “Based on commodity prices, yields and input costs, rents should be about $100 an acre,” said University of Minnesota Extension Educators David Bau. “But (rents) are about double that or more.” Read the Full Story No End In Sight For Midwest Farmers' Financial Woes Agricultural bankers are predicting continued financial trouble for farmers in Illinois and across the Midwest. Data from the Federal Reserve ...
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2019 ASFMRA Awards Announced

By ASFMRA Press posted 11-27-2019
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Alex Clark Tel. 303.692.1227 Email: aclark@asfmra.org Rural Property Professionals Receive Recognition Awards Given at 2019 ASFMRA Annual Conference in Louisville November 26, 2019   Glendale, Colo – The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers® (ASFMRA®) honored dozens of rural appraisers, farm managers and consultants at the 2019 ASFMRA Annual Conference on November 20, 2019, in Louisville, Ky.   At the Accreditation and Awards Ceremony, sponsored by Hertz Farm Management, it was announced that 24 ASFMRA members received their Accredited Farm Management (AFM) designation, while an ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - November 26, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 11-24-2019
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The Next Generation of Farmland Prices Farmland represents over 81% of farm sector assets and values stayed relatively static through the first half of 2019. Farmland values are impacted by a myriad of factors beyond just demand and the overall agriculture economy. David Klein, First Mid Ag Services vice president, managing broker and auctioneer, provided the seven issues affecting farmland values during First Mid Ag Services Field Day. Read the Full Story. Farm Succession Strategies: 8 Ways to Communicate Successfully The struggling farm economy means that farm transfers from one generation to the next may be happening in a sped-up process, ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - November 12, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 11-07-2019
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Land's Linchpin: Amid Low Inventory, Little Interest to Sell A 67-acre tract of farmland in Sioux County, Iowa, brought $18,300 per acre at auction earlier this month. In September, Hertz Farm Management had 10 sales at $10,000 or more per acre and eight sales above $11,000 per acre for corn and soybean ground, CEO Randy Hertz told DTN. These sales may be isolated cases in today's market, but the trend of steady-to-slightly higher land values is not. Farmland brokers report sales around the Midwest continue to attract strong buying interest, primarily from farmers. Read the Full Story Area Ag Bankers See a Rocky Economic Outlook An informal survey ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - October 29, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 10-24-2019
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Agriculture Funds Aim to Harvest Profit, Along With Corn and Wheat Two realities undergird the investment case for agriculture: The world’s population keeps swelling and everyone must eat. A third reality — climate change — will make satisfying those billions of appetites harder and companies that can help farmers potentially more valuable. Agriculture isn’t a standard investment sector in the way that, say, financial stocks are, and definitions of it vary, including things ranging from the obvious, like the American equipment-maker Deere & Company, to the offbeat, like Leroy Seafood, the Norwegian fish farmer. Read the Full Story. Fintech ...
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Member Spotlight: Mark A. Keller, ASA, SR/WA, CCIM

By ASFMRA Press posted 10-16-2019
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Name: Mark A. Keller, ASA, SR/WA, CCIM  Chapter:   AZ ASFMRA Member Since:   2002 Current Employer: Salt River Project When did you begin your career in agriculture? Why? As the new real property appraiser at Salt River Project in 2001, the Phoenix Metropolitan area was rapidly expanding into the West Valley and also into northern Pinal County. Salt River Project was projecting substantial facilities needs in terms of infrastructure and right of way. At that time, huge tracts of agricultural and desert land were available and I needed a professional organization of appraisers to provide agricultural valuation and expertise, so I became ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - October 15, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 10-10-2019
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Snow, Freezing Temperatures Threaten Northern U.S. Corn, Soybeans Plunging temperatures and heavy snow forecast for the upper U.S. Plains from Friday to Sunday are likely to damage unharvested corn and soybean crops in parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa, meteorologists said on Wednesday. The winter-like blast could dump up to 3 feet of snow in central and eastern North Dakota and send temperatures plunging into the 20s Fahrenheit in Nebraska, western Iowa, southwest Minnesota, and the Dakotas, said Kyle Tapley, senior agricultural meteorologist with space technology company Maxar. Read the Full Story. The Big Players ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - October 1, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 09-26-2019
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Struggling Farmers See Bright Spot in Solar U.S. farmers are embracing an alternative means of turning sunlight into revenue during a sharp downturn in crop prices: solar power. Solar panels are being installed across the Farm Belt for personal and external use on land where growers are struggling to make ends meet. The tit-for-tat tariffs applied by the U.S. and China to each other’s goods have cut demand for American crops. Futures prices for corn, soybeans and wheat are all trading around their lowest levels since 2010. Making matters worse, record spring rainfall left many farmers no time to plant a decent crop. Read the Full Story. Why ...
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ASFMRA AgNews - September 17, 2019

By ASFMRA Press posted 09-16-2019
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How a Manhattan Scion Built a Rural Empire Stefan Soloviev is in his “western office”—the passenger seat of a Chevy Silverado bouncing along a dirt road near the Kansas-Colorado border, his farm manager at the wheel. It’s a far cry from his desk on the 45th floor of 9 W. 57th St. in Manhattan, a skyscraper famed for its Central Park views, private equity tenants and irascible owner—Soloviev’s 91-year-old father, billionaire developer   Sheldon Solow . Out here, the son is the empire builder. In ball cap and T-shirt, flexing elaborately tattooed arms, he works the phone as the four-ton truck kicks up a dust cloud between the wheat fields. His wheat ...
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Member Spotlight: Norm Edwards, ARA

By ASFMRA Press posted 09-12-2019
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Name: Norm Edwards, ARA Chapter: AZ and SD ASFMRA Member Since: 1973 Current Employer:  Self Employed Currently Retired State and Federal Governmental Appraiser When did you begin your career in agriculture? Why? I grew up on a ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. I was exposed to a more diversified farm and ranch eco-system when I studied Agricultural Economic and received my B.S. from South Dakota State University. I applied for a position for the State of South Dakota and began my career in Appraising. I almost immediately found the challenges in evaluating properties and justifying the value of interest in the properties ...
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