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Survey shows Iowa farmland down nine percent

Farmland prices in Iowa are down nine percent from one year ago, according to the latest update from Iowa State University.

That’s the largest annual decline in 28 years. But Michael Duffy, a retired Iowa State economics professor who conducted the survey, says it wasn’t unexpected given the declines in commodity prices and farm income. He points out that, in spite of the decrease, farmland values are still more than double what they were a decade ago.

The average value of Iowa farmland dropped by 773 dollars to 7,943 dollars per acre. The largest decrease in farmland value was a 14 percent drop in southwest Iowa. The only crop reporting district to show an increase in values was southeast Iowa, which reported values about three percent higher than last year.