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Iowa’s farm owners getting older
Iowa State University survey, done since the 1940s, shows challenges for beginning farmers to get land
Iowa’s farmland owners are getting older and while that means their land likely will change hands soon, it probably won’t go to beginning farmers.
Two-thirds of Iowa farmland is owned by people 65 and older — more than double the share of 65-and-older owners in 1982 and up from 60 percent in 2017, according to the 2022 Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey, released Thursday.
Owners of only 4 percent of Iowa farmland say they intend to sell to someone outside their family, the survey found. And while 75 percent of landowners said they would sell to a beginning farmer who is hardworking and could pay fair market value, that share fell to 45 percent if the beginning farmer couldn’t pay fair market value.
“They worry the beginning farmers don’t have the ability to pay top prices or they worry they (beginning farmers) won’t have the ability to afford the large tract they want to sell,” said Wendong Zhang, an assistant professor of economics at Cornell University who conducted survey with Jingyi Tong, a Ph.D. student in economics at ISU.
Iowa farmland values reached a record high of an average $11,400 per acre last fall, spurred by high commodity prices and low interest rates, ISU reported.
The survey, done since the 1940s and every five years since 1982, reports forms of ownership, tenancy and transfer of farmland in Iowa and characteristics of landowners. ISU gathers ownership data on a consistent set of 700 tracts of land across the state and then does a phone survey of those owners. The response rate for 2022 was 45 percent.
Other highlights of the 2022 survey include:
- 84 percent of Iowa farmland is owned debt free. For people 65 and above, 90 percent of the land is paid off, while for people 35 and younger, only 17 percent of land is debt free.
- 58 percent of farmland is leased, with the majority of leases being cash rental as opposed to share crop, where owners and farmers share costs and profits.
- 55 percent of farmland is owned by someone who does not farm.
- 46 percent of farmland is owned by women, consistent from 2017.
- 37 percent of farmland is primarily owned for family or sentimental reasons — an increase from 29 percent in 2017.
- 17 percent of landowners neither have a successor for ownership or management.
The survey also asks Iowa farmland owners about their conservation practices. The share of land planted in cover crops inched up to 7 percent, from 4 percent in 2017 and the share of land planted without tilling went to 30 percent from 27 percent.
“No-till is used more in Southwest and East Central Iowa,” Wendong said. “Cover crops are used more frequently in areas where you can potentially couple with grazing needs, such as the northwest, northeast and southeast parts of the state.”
Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com
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