Farmland rental rates rise in Iowa

Farmers leasing land to grow corn and soybeans are paying more this year in Iowa than they did a year ago.

The average rent for non-irrigated cropland is $260 per acre this year, up $5 from 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Rents ranged from an average of $149 per acre in Appanoose County to $322 per acre in Grundy County.

In the east central Iowa crop reporting district, farmland rent rose to an average $255 per acre in 2014 from $244 per acre in 2013.

Linn County farmland rent slipped to an average $247 per acre in 2014 from $251 per acre last year. Farmland average rent in Johnson County rose to $236 per acre this year from $217 per acre in 2013.

The USDA report differed with a May survey performed by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. While the average rent statewide was the same - $260 per acre - the ISU report claimed that was a decline of $10 per acre, or nearly 4 percent, from 2013.

William Edwards, retired ISU Extension economist who directed the survey, attributed the drop in average rent to significantly lower crop prices for the 2013 crop and lower price forecasts for this year's crop, tempering farmers' optimism about prospective profits.

In the latest USDA survey, released Monday, the northwest and southwest crop reporting districts posted lower average farmland rent per acre. The other crop reporting districts reported higher average farmland rent per acre for 2014.

Besides Grundy, two other counties - Sioux and Ida - also averaged more than $300 per acre in 2014.

Eleven counties had average cash rents less than $200 per acre in 2014, compared with 15 counties in 2013.

The 11 counties were all in the south central and southeast districts.

Cash rent paid for pasture in Iowa averaged $50 per acre in 2014, up $1 from 2013. Average cash rents ranged from $33.50 per acre in Lee County to $74 per acre in Pottawattamie County.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; george.ford@thegazette.com