American farmland values skyrocket

Nov 18, 2021

American farmland real estate values jump by 18 percent over numbers from 2020 Q3 in a five-state region.

In the Seventh Federal Reserve District that includes all of Iowa and much of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, the Chicago Fed—aka the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago that serves the District—it is believed that the large increase in values is related to the higher crop prices achieved this year.

The 18 percent increase is the largest such jump in nearly 10 years, noted the Chicago Fed, and added that the valuation increase was aided by high incomes and low interest rates, and corn and soybean futures hitting multiyear peaks thanks to bad weather affecting yield.

On the downside, the high value of farmland adds to inflation concerns as raw material prices rise along with transportation rates—all bad news for consumers.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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