By Ann Johanns
In a year with low crop prices and high production costs, Iowa cropland cash rental rate trends stayed relatively flat across the state. The 2026 state average was $1 lower, or -0.4%, at $270 per crop acre as compared to 2025 (Figure 1). The statewide survey has been conducted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach annually since 1994, gathering typical rents for acres devoted to corn and soybeans, as well as for oats, hay, pasture, cornstalk grazing and hunting rights. The survey does not ask for specific rents on individual farms.
For each county in Iowa, the report shows the average rental rate, along with the range and average for high, medium and low quality cropland. Rental rates for irrigated and organic cropland, as well as hay, oat, pasture, cornstalk grazing and hunting rights, are reported at the crop reporting district level only.
Responses were consistent across farmland quality levels, with the high-quality third down $3, medium-quality down $2 and low-quality third up $1. The small adjustments align with similar results from recent land value surveys, such as the ISU Center for Agricultural and Rural Development Land Value Survey, showing a 0.7% increase in December, and the most recent REALTORS Land Institute reporting a net gain of 0.3% in land values from March 2025 to March 2026.
Results by Crop Reporting Districts (Figure 2) ranged from a decline of $5 in East Central and Southwest to an increase of $2 in Northwest. There was variability across counties in year-to-year changes, as is typical of survey data, but 47 counties reported an increase, whereas 49 counties reported a decline in rents from 2025. Three counties showed no change. The highest county average rents were reported in Sioux, Lyon and Delaware at $332, $331 and $325 per acre, respectively. The lowest average rents were observed in Wayne, Lucas and Davis at $173, $187, and $200 per acre, respectively.
Source : iastate.edu