Farmland Buyers More Selective

Buyers of U.S. farmland appear undaunted by falling grain prices, paying top dollar for land coming up for sale at autumn auctions, although showing a more cautious tone than in recent years, AgriMarketing reports.

“It’s more dependent on where a farm is located than the general land market. The person the farm is near matters more than the type of farm,” said Bruce Huber, an Illinois real estate broker. “Last year, it was just up, up, up.”

There is a wide audience for farm land prices this season. Federal Reserve policy makers, farm bankers who use land as loan collateral, seed and fertilizer dealers and equipment makers like John Deere are closely watching land sales as an indicator of future farmer spending at a time grains prices – if not revenues, given higher yields — have fallen back.

“Farmland values are holding pretty flat from where they have been. Usually the big moves in land values come in the fourth quarter, so we’re right in the middle of it,” Jason Henderson, a Purdue University agricultural economist.