UNL CropWatch March 25: 2011 Cash Rental Rates up 15-25%

UNL CropWatch March 25: 2011 Cash Rental Rates up 15-25%

March 25, 2011

2011 cash rental rates for Nebraska cropland increased an average of 13% to 25% from last year, according to the UNL Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments Survey report.

“Given current commodity price levels and the likelihood of record shattering income levels for the crop sector this year, these significant cash rental rate increases look to be not only economically justified, but even conservative,” wrote the report’s authors in a recent UNL Cornhusker Economics article. Authors were Bruce Johnson, professor, Roger Wilson, extension farm management/enterprise budget analyst, Sara Van Newkirk, undergraduate student assistant, and Tyler Rosener, undergraduate student assistant, all in the UNL Department of Agricultural Economics.

Ag land prices showed similar gains, rising an average of 22%, with cropland values leading the increase. The statewide all-land average value was $1,933 as of Feb. 1, compared to the 2010 value of $1,530. (See CW story: Ag Land Values up 22% from Last Year and Double from 2005.)

Pasture rental rates for 2011, both on a per-acre and dollar-per-month basis, are generally stable to slightly upward across most of the state, according to the report.

Final figures for this year’s report will be available this summer. For more information and more detailed tables of rental rates by type of farmland, see the UNL Department of Agricultural Economics newsletter, Cornhusker Economics.
 

Table 1. Average cash rental rates reported by district in the March 16, 2011 Cornhusker Economics. (Preliminary)
 

  Agricultural Statistics District

Type of Land

Percent Change

NS N NE Central E SW S SE
  Dollars per acre (average)
 Dryland Cropland  35  45  180  94  178  48  96  142

   Percent Change

12.9% IR 25% 13.3% 21.9% 17.1% 25.7% 22.4%
 Gravity Irrigated Cropland  IR  IR  248  197  259  IR  211  236

   Percent Change

IR IR 19.8% 13.2% 24.5% IR 15.3% 19.8%
 Center Pivot Irrigated Cropland  171  195  279  221  273  193  233  257

   Percent Change

22.1% 16.8% 20.3% 14.5% 16.7% 19.1% 17.7% 20.1%
 Pasture  11  14  47  30  37  14  32  34

    Percent Change

 0  0  17.5%  11.1%  5.7%  7.7%  10.3%  6.3%
IR = Insufficient number of reports


 

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