North Dakota, Minnesota farmland prices keep rising despite challenges in ag industry

FARGO Agricultural land prices are continuing to rise in North Dakota and Minnesota despite challenges in the U S farm market system experts say The U S Department of Agriculture priced North Dakota cropland at an acre higher than the previous year Minnesota s cropland value was per acre in August up from the USDA explained in its August land values summary Experts expected land prices in Minnesota and North Dakota to correct themselves in or according to Troy Swee an area sales manager for Farmers National Company Farm income this year is expected to hit its lowest point since Farmers National Senior Vice President for Real Estate Paul Schadegg explained citing USDA forecasts Interest rates and farming costs also climbed this year while commodity prices fell Swee stated If you could go back in time and say We were going to decrease corn prices by and double interest rates everyone would have expected a bubble to burst and it just didn t Swee reported The Forum There s just a lot of demand for farm ground with these farmers North Dakota and Minnesota follow a national trend as cropland prices in the U S steadily climbed over the last years from an acre in to in the summary mentioned Pastureland prices also rose during the same time period from per acre to this year The North Dakota Department of Trust Lands Annual Land Survey estimates cropland prices are averaging higher than USDA numbers Per-acre price tags rose from in to this year according to the survey published in April by North Dakota State University Extensionf Institution That s improvement over the last four years and a increase from according to NDSU Extension North Dakota s average pastureland prices grew more than since the survey stated High demand for land and limited available property for sale are contributing to rising prices Swee revealed A record number of farms in the U S sold in and he disclosed Since then inventories have been down he noted A year ago we sold about less farms across the nation The number of farms sold this year should remain flat compared to he noted At present s land prices are also an indicator of what happened several years ago announced Bryon Parman an associate professor and agricultural finance specialist at NDSU Farmers published high net incomes including a record year in he noted Along with more cash on hand and low interest rates producers felt more reassured investing in land Parman mentioned You get an increase in demand and you ve had a couple years in a row of strong net income years and that drives prices higher he mentioned Cropland prices in the south Red River Valley are the highest in North Dakota according to NDSU Prices in Cass Traill and Richland counties averaged per acre up from last year the NDSU survey noted About of farmland is being purchased by local farmers Swee commented Local investors are also buying farmland to expand their portfolios while outside groups or corporations are getting very little farmland he announced They re getting perhaps around to Swee disclosed of out-of-state investors They re constantly at auctions and they re inevitably present online but they re generally looking for deals Swee noted record profits in the livestock industry Feeder cattle hit an all-time high of a pound by noon Tuesday This is the best year for cattle producers ever Swee commented U S cattle numbers have declined for six years due to drought reported Tim Petry associate professor and livestock economist at NDSU Farmers didn t have enough pasture to feed cattle and had to sell them he noted As of July the U S communicated it had million head of beef cattle slightly up from last year but near -year lows according to the USDA It means we have a very low supply of beef Petry noted The demand for all meat has gone up he mentioned The hype of not eating meat has changed to including more protein in diets he disclosed Meat is back in vogue Petry announced That increases the demand for meat and so meat prices have been going up Pastures are returning to normal and producers want to bring herd numbers back up he announced That causes land prices to go up he announced The biggest threat to land prices is the current state of the agricultural financial sector Swee mentioned With lower commodity prices farmers may sell land to balance budget sheets he disclosed That could put pressure on these land markets to come down he explained The weakness in commodity prices and the rise of production costs could slow land prices Parman noted At least for the next year I don t think we re going to see a decline in farmland prices but I do think we re certainly going to see a slowdown in increase he mentioned Related Articles California engineer wins pumpkin contest with -pound gourd Letters Two big police officers one lost little girl Other voices Soybean farmers feel the effects of Trump s transaction war Letters It s not left or right that matters the greater part but the vengeful alienation Trump s exchange 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