Recent articles on the farmland market have accomplished one major point – there is no true description of the market that can apply to the entire region. It’s a little stronger one place but a little weaker another. Is that due to lack of sales, too many sales, low quality land versus high quality land, good crops vs bad crops? What’s the real story? If any one conclusion can be made, it is probably that the market is slightly softer than a year ago. There is no shortage of capable buyers, but there can be a shortage of buyers willing to pay up to previous price levels. Thus, we’re seeing auction results that may exceed expectations in one given circumstance where the competition may not be broad, but has two bidders who are willing to go deep. The next auction may find bidding activity is slow going. When one parcel sells well the question becomes, can a similar result be replicated on the next parcel that sells in that neighborhood (assuming normal adjustments for quality differences). Appraisers rely on “comparable” sales. The question is now sometimes whether you have “replicable” sales
2018 Review: For some farmers in Northwest Iowa last season’s weather was a disaster, for others it was nearly perfect, and most were somewhere in-between. The difference between the two extremes was mainly location and soil type. Prolonged wet periods in Northern Iowa reduced crop yields on many farms especially in flood-prone areas, while well-drained farms just outside of these wet areas achieved very good or even record yields. Overall, the 2018 crop was better than average both in Iowa and nationally. Iowa averaged 192 bushels per acre on its corn crop and 58 bushels per acre on soybeans. US averages were 176.4 bu/acre on corn and 51.6 bu/acre on soybeans
Congress accomplished something unusual on December 20, 2018 when it passed a new farm program into law, almost on time. In fact, more on time than in the past several decades. The old program expired on September 30th, and the typical approach has been to extend the old program another year or two. Being only a couple of months overdue seemed quite an accomplishment. It helps that not much was changed from the 2014 program. Here are the main items:
The New Year brings with it the usual mix of optimism and caution as we contemplate another growing season. First, a few reasons for optimism. The trade war with China looks to have become a little less hot. Talks are progressing and China has been back in the market for a limited amount of soybeans, albeit for fewer bushels than we have normally sold to them by this time in the marketing year. At the time of this writing in mid March, nothing has been formally resolved, but the mere fact that talks are occurring has given a boost to the grain markets off the harvest lows. Trade is vitally important to virtually all of our agricultural markets. A resolution to the impasse we’ve had over the last year would be a big relief.
The requirements to become an appraiser are little understood by the general public, partly because there are varying requirements, and partly because there are just not that many appraisers that you probably converse about it with! The appraisal industry underwent its most major overhaul nearly 30 years ago when state licensing came about. That was part of the federal response to the savings and loan crisis, which was blamed in large part on faulty or fraudulent appraisals.
