Agricultural Business Management News

The annual survey has been conducted of farmland sales in fourteen southwestern Minnesota counties. The survey collects bare farmland sales to non-related parties for the first six months of each year. Land values had been steadily increasing until 2014. After reaching record high prices in 2013, the upward trend was broken as prices declined in 2014 and continued down through 2017. The trend changed to an increase in 2018, remained constant in 2019, and then declined in 2020. The summary report for this survey is available at the county Extension offices in Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Martin, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock, Watonwan and Yellow Medicine counties. This year, the decrease across the fourteen counties averaged 3.1 percent. Southwest Minnesota land prices peaked at $8,466 per acre, then declined in 2017 to $6,340. Prices increased in 2018 to $6,589 and declined slightly to $6,576 in 2019 and then to $6,371 in 2020. The largest in

by Megan Roberts, Extension educator This article was originally published on January 15, 2021 and subsequently updated with new information in late February. The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) continues to announce additional programs to assist farmers. The farmers.gov website delivers the most up-to-date, accurate information on these programs, and we recommend farmers visit that site for timely info and releases. Some of these programs are COVID-19 related disaster programs, while others are ongoing risk management programs with regular sign-up periods. This post draws attention to several FSA programs currently accepting sign-ups.  CFAP 1 and 2 Announced on January 15, 2021, FSA will allow additional eligibility for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP 1 and CFAP 2) to farmers that may not have applied previously due to ineligibility, as well as offering additional retroactive payments for some producers that already receive

by Megan Roberts, Extension educator If you have not already made your 2021 Farm Bill Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) decision, now is the time to sign-up. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) is currently accepting applications for ARC/PLC enrollment through March 15, 2021. The 2018 Farm Bill allows producers to make annual changes to their ARC/PLC enrollment beginning with crop year 2021. Producers can elect coverage and enroll in crop-by-crop ARC-County or PLC, or ARC-Individual for the entire farm. Although election changes for 2021 are optional, enrollment (signed contract) is required for each year of the program. If a producer has a multi-year contract on the farm and makes an election change for 2021, it will be necessary to sign a new contract. The ARC and PLC programs provide financial protections to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices or revenues and are vital economic safety nets for most American farms.

by Dave Bau, Extension educator  The Farm Resource Guide for 2021 is now available at many University of Minnesota Extension County offices across the state. This resource guide includes a wide variety of useful farm business management information, including the following items: Custom rates: what to charge for planting, etc. Average farmland rental rates by county from two sources with projections for 2021 Flexible rental agreements and examples of how they work and how they have worked in past Fill-in-the-blank lease forms for cash rent and share rent arrangements Farmland sales information for all counties in Minnesota that lists current average ag sales Information on charges for custom feeding, commodity storage, leasing buildings and various bin rental rates, including leasing a dairy barn and machine storage.  Current information on pasture rental rates, tree timber values Marketing information along with recent cost trends for Minnesota Commodity price probabilities for corn,

by Dave Bau, Extension educator At the end of last year, several Farmland Rental Rate Workshops were held virtually due to the COVID-19 virus. Several originally scheduled in-person sessions were changed to virtual, as well. If you would like to watch a recorded video from one of these sessions for various locations across the state, they can be found at z.umn.edu/2020LandRentRecordings . The materials presented at the workshops can be found at: https://extension.umn.edu/business/farmland-rent-and-economics . Here you can find a statewide map with rental rates, a spreadsheet by county of cropland rental rates and worksheets for landlords and farmers to fill out to help determine what a fair rental rate is for 2021 for farmland or pasture. In the table below, you can see the average rent for fourteen counties in southwest Minnesota, paid by farmers in the adult farm management programs. The estimated rents for 2020 and 2021 are listed in the last two columns. The 2020 and 2021 estimate