farmland prices Archives

Prairie farmland rentals rates difficult to track

Rental rates could be important in 2025 as grain producers deal with lower grain prices and relatively high input costs

By Robert Arnason March 30, 2025

In Red Deer County in central Alberta, a survey found cropland leasing rates were around $75 per acre. Renting that same land could be 40-50 per cent more expensive in 2025 — but it’s difficult to even make a guess because land rents are considered a “dark market.”

Interest rates have risen 300 basis points since the beginning of the year. Photo: Andreas Wiebe/File

News

Farmland becoming less affordable: FCC

By Adam Peleshaty March 28, 2025

Buying farmland became more costly in 2024, according to Farm Credit Canada.

Five-year financing on new equipment doesn’t care if cash flow and profit are less than they were when you made the purchase.

Features

To debt, or not to debt?

As we head further into 2025, will more debt be essential for a farm’s success?

By April Stewart February 28, 2025

Glacier FarmMedia — There are many pressures on the agriculture industry and its individual businesses. Our farms are expected to do more at every turn. Every sector is feeling the effects of those expectations. And you don’t need to go far to find a farmer who will tell you the cost underpinning all the programs, […] Read more

It’s not unreasonable for parents who’ve spent decades building an operation to hope that a successor is committed for the long haul.

Columns, Farm Life

How to talk about ‘fair family price’ for land, other assets

Seeds of Encouragement: A family farm transfer likely involves some gifting, given the market values for farmland

By Elaine Froese, Glenn Dogterom November 7, 2024

Elaine writes: “Fair family price” versus “fair market value price” (or FFP vs. FMV) is often a tense conversation between a farm’s founders, needing to sell assets for their personal income stream, and a buyer, often the cash-strapped successor on the farm. To offer readers some wisdom on this conversation I asked our coaching teammate […] Read more

File photo of farmland around an abandoned farmstead near Swift Current, Sask. (ImagineGolf/iStock/Getty Images)

General

Renting land better than buying for cash flow: FCC

Each farm needs to make the decision themselves, but a bit of analysis can help when choosing

By GFM Network News April 18, 2024

Rising farmland values and higher interest rates have swung the affordability pendulum in favour of renting, not buying, farmland.

Many future farmers are headed toward a “perfect storm” that may make difficult-but- necessary conversations both more difficult and more necessary.

Columns, Farm Life

Tips to navigate transition storms

The cash flow needed to acquire land can fall outside of long-term profitability

By Elaine Froese March 29, 2024

Last month, in the U.S., we heard Steven Bohr of Next Generation Ag Advocates encourage young farmers with tools for transition. The average price per acre in Iowa, as of last Nov. 1, is estimated at US$11,835, and 34 per cent of the land has owners over 75 years of age. Sixty per cent of […] Read more

Spring or summer -- times when the growing season is well underway -- are considered the best times to list a farm property.

Features

Up for sale: First impressions count when selling farms

Rural real estate specialists offer advice if you're considering listing your farm

By Jim Timlick March 5, 2024

It’s been said you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. That’s especially true when it comes to selling the family farm, says a Manitoba real estate agent who specializes in farm property sales. Maurice Torr, a rural real estate expert with Century 21 Westman Realty in Brandon, says it’s important […] Read more

Columns, Markets

A hundred years of Prairie farmland prices

Don’t bet the farm on that much-anticipated easing of interest rates

By Les Henry February 9, 2024

Farmland prices continue to go up like a helium balloon, leading to speculation that it might continue and speculation in land as a commodity. In this piece we will look at a long history and provide some guesses about the future. Anyone who thinks they can actually predict the future is living in dreamland. Figure […] Read more

Real estate apps are already big business in residential markets. If they cut transaction costs, why not in agriculture too?
Photo: Getty Images

General, Reuters

U.S. Lawmakers seek to limit corporate, foreign ownership of farmland

Farm groups, lawmakers are concerned that foreign, investor ownership is driving up prices and threatening national security

By GFM Network News July 27, 2023

Washington | Reuters – U.S. lawmakers from both parties are pushing legislation that would limit who can own American farmland, with a latest effort from Democratic Senator Cory Booker aimed at curbing corporate ownership. Farm groups and lawmakers are concerned that land buys by investors and foreign countries are driving up farmland prices and threatening […] Read more

General, Markets

Buy or rent? Land rent-to-price ratio can help farmers decide

FCC sees current ratios on farmland as (roughly) stable

By GFM Network News April 27, 2023

Higher interest rates don’t seem to be affecting the ratio between land values and land rental costs — at least, not yet. Farm Credit Canada’s latest analysis of farmland rental prices says they’re roughly maintaining their traditional linkage, says J.P Gervais, the organization’s chief economist. “We were curious to see whether that would bring up […] Read more

Alberta crop conditions improve: report

U.S. grains: Corn sets contract lows on expectations for big US crop

U.S. livestock: Cattle strength continues

GFM Network News