“The Land Market Has Never Been Stronger”

So says Mac Boyd, a broker at Farmers National in Arcola, Illinois. Boyd is just one of the many veteran real estate professionals who are closely monitoring the strongest farmland market in decades. Read more

The Best Job in America?

In a previous story at LandReport.com, we took a look at the value of hiring a competent ranch manager to oversee a larger piece of property. While competency is one key attribute, passion is another. Read on to see what I mean. Read more

Low Food Levels, High Corn Prices Mean Less Land for CRP

Driving today I tuned into C-SPAN Radio on my XM dial looking for something better than the latest Top 20. I caught the tail end of a conversation,  Congressional testimony it sounded like, regarding the current food crisis that is plaguing the United States and the rest of the world. The discussion centered on a program and its effects on those prices. Read more

Illinois sees land values rise dramatically

Farmland values in Illinois increased by nearly 6% during the first half of this year, with investors, both local and national, bidding up the rural properties, particularly in the “collar counties” around Chicago. Rather than focus on short-term problems in the credit and housing markets, many long-term investors perceive an “asset shortage,” and that is driving the price increases, financiers are telling LandReport.com. Read more

The Clean Energy Scam

Amazing new diets, intriguing self-help books, a daily dose of St. John’s Wort - we are a country obsessed with quick fixes. Now, as Time points out in this cover story titled The Clean Energy Myth, we can add ethanol to our national wish list. Read more

Corn Drives Land Prices Higher and Higher

It’s official. The New York Times proclaimed in August that the market for Midwestern farmland was “hot,” a declaration akin to labeling Hurricane Katrina “dangerous” two weeks after it devastated the Gulf Coast. Anyone remotely familiar with the Corn Belt knows that rural land prices have skyrocketed for several years. Here’s a rundown of some recent figures. Read more