Midwest Cropland Pulls Back Three Percent

The Chicago Fed reports that farmland values in the Seventh District retreated three percent last year, matching the yearly decrease for 2014 and marking the first consecutive annual decline since the late 1980s. According to the district’s agricultural newsletter, which was prepared by Senior Business Economist David Oppedahl from responses submitted by representatives of 199 agricultural banks, the decrease in Corn Belt values was 7.5 percent from their peak in 2013 to the end of 2015. Although agricultural land values fell again in 2015, the total corn harvest in the five states that comprise the Seventh District was the third largest ever; the soybean harvest was an all-time record, besting the record-setting harvest of 2014. The Seventh District includes all of Iowa, the northern portions of Illinois and Indiana, the southern portion of Wisconsin, and the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Read more HERE.