The latest Iowa State University Extension survey of farmland cash rental rates shows an increase by an average of 10.3% in 2022. Economist Alejandro Plastina says there still seems to be room for more of an increase based on the price of land and commodities.
He says the survey is conducted every year in February and April when many rents are already decided, but some are not decided until September and August. He says the question asked about rent is more general.
The USDA survey is based on individual contracts. The $256 an acre rate in this survey is the third consecutive increase, and largest uptick in cash rents since 2013 went rates hit $270. Plastina believes the rate will go up again based on what he’s seeing.
He says more than half of the farmland in the state is rented to others to farm. And he says the percentage of tenants that are not already landowners is small.
That’s because Iowa farmland doesn’t go up for sale very often.
The average cash rents increased by similar percentages across different types of land quality.
