Peoples Perspective

Fertility: Your Farmland's Asset

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For most landowners, the most valuable asset is their land. They are proud of their property, the crops grown on it, and the history of how it came to be. After family sentiment, farm quality is often gauged by its productivity of saleable crops. In the Midwest, that includes corn, soybeans and...

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June 2019 Iowa Land Auction Results

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Land Investment Monthly - July 2019

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  (Image from TIME article 10.1.18)   Farmland Values Firm Up From Ohio to Nebraska, farm real estate brokers note a firmness in the market that wasn't there three months ago. "Even six weeks ago, we were looking at selling $3.30-per-bushel old-crop corn. There's a...

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Farm Debt-to-Asset Ratio

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Over the past several decades, we have seen volatility in the amount of farm debt relative to the value of farm assets. Following the 80’s, we saw a steady decline in debt-to-asset ratios through 2008 but have seen a substantial increase over the last decade as farm debt-to-asset ratios...

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Land Investment Monthly - June 2019

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Apple-picking robots gear up for U.S. debut in Washington state Next fall, as you browse the produce section at your local grocery store, pay close attention to the apples. You might be witnessing American history. For the first time, some of the apples sold in the U.S. will be picked by a...

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May 2019 Iowa Land Auction Results

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The volume of auctions during May was a record low. Alternatively, the calendar is filling up, and it appears that June will be a busy month for auction activity. That volume should continue to increase through year-end. For the year, land values have moved sideways, but the consensus among our...

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A Case for Phased Conservation

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Wouldn’t it be great if we could take every farm and fix all conservation concerns in one year?  A landowner and operator would come to the table and address fertility, drainage and erosions and then make ­­a plan to swiftly address all three immediately.  When year two...

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2019 Prevent Plant: 3 Considerations Before Parking the Planter

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As the Midwest is in the final week of May, many operators are still left at the field gate waiting to get a crop in the ground. Operators are starting to ask whether they should hold out for better weather, switch corn acres to soybeans, or file for prevent plant and wait by the mailbox. While...

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Predicting Land Prices

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As a real estate agent, I get asked nearly every day about land prices. The most common question farmers ask is: Why are land prices staying strong when profits in production agriculture have been hard to come by. Even some economists have predicted a much larger correction to the land market...

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April 2019 Iowa Land Auction Results

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  The number of farms being marketed for auction at the present time is very low. Per our records, there are only 12 tracts being marketed for public auction as of April 30, 2019. Values continue to be stable overall with an average of $114/CSR2 for highly tillable farms that sold at...

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