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2018 cash rents called steady to slightly lower

The president and CEO of Farmers National Company, Jim Farrell, expects farmland rental rates to be steady to slightly lower in 2018.

“We don’t anticipate seeing any reduction greater than, say, three to five percent this year, not at this point anyway,” Farrell says, “and a high percentage of our leases are going to be even, or steady.”

Farrell says there’s still plenty of demand for rented land. And he says steady land values are also supporting cash rents.

“So if land values continue to stay steady, we’re probably going to see pretty steady cash rents—until those land values start to decline again,” he says.

Farrell says cash rents, on average, were down three to five percent in 2017.

AUDIO: Jim Farrell