Peoples Perspective

In the April edition of the Landowner Insights series, Dr. David Muth presented on market trends, economic drivers, and environmental policy impacting the farmland asset class as well as management strategies to regulate risk and optimize return.

In early April, I had the opportunity to join Peoples Company Delta Land Manager Julie Boggs and our 2024 Leading Harvest auditing team on managed farms in northern Louisiana.

Congratulations to Peoples Company agents Matt Adams, Steve Bruere, Adam Crist, and Travis Smock for each winning the coveted Land Star Top Performer Award in the Midwest Region! Their dedication and hard work haven't gone unnoticed, and this award is a well‑deserved recognition of their exceptional achievements in the land real estate market.

Peoples Company tracks agricultural auctions across the state of Iowa. From this data, we calculate the average dollar per CSR2 point ($/CSR2) for sales of tracts with greater than 85% tillable land. Additionally, these tracts are largely unimproved or include minimal improvement contribution.

With planting season right around the corner, Peoples Company wanted to take this opportunity to remind growers of the upcoming important dates revolving around this next stage of the crop insurance cycle. Initial planting dates, replanting, and prevent planting are important topics to discuss during this time of year and play an important role in MPCI coverage moving forward after the sales closing deadline.

In 2021 the U.S. rejoined The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, and published “The Long-Term Strategy of the United States, Pathways to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050 [1]. Net zero refers to a balance between the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) that is produced and the amount of GHG removed from the atmosphere. Agriculture accounts for approximately 10% of total GHG emissions in the U.S. [2].

The appraisal team at Peoples Company was able to track 82 tracts or 6,803.16 acres sold at public auction in Iowa during March 2024. The average dollar per acre was $11,316, the average dollar per tillable acre was $13,574, and the average dollar per CSR2 was $174.

Please join Peoples Company for the latest installment of our webinar series "The Power of Energy Management: Unleashing Potential" with speakers Kayla Rowan, Mike Greczyn, Robert Wilson, and Blake Singleton.

Earlier this month OPEC+ announced it intends to continue production cuts through the second quarter of 2024. This announcement left forecasters at the EIA scrambling to adjust the Short-Term Energy Outlook stating, “We now forecast significantly less global oil production than world oil consumption through the first half of 2024, requiring draws on world petroleum stocks (inventory). Stock draws tend to increase oil prices.”

Tailwater recovery systems, reservoirs, and relifts are some of the water carrying practices farm operators, landowners and conservationists implement to efficiently move water in the Delta. While there are several Delta aquifers used across the region, most farmland depends on pumping from is the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer.