2014 Nebraska Farmland Values and Rental Rates

The recently published Nebraska Farm Real Es-tate Market Highlights 2013-2014 report indi-cates as of February 1, 2014 the weighted aver-age farmland value for the state rose by about 9 percent over the prior 12-month period to $3,315 per acre (Figure 1 on page 2 and Table 1 on page 3). Also, 2014 cash rental rates on average de-clined across Nebraska for dryland and irrigated cropland; while pasture and cow-calf pair rental rates significantly increased (Table 2 on page 4). Survey panel members indicated lower grain prices as the most negative factor influencing cropland rental markets and cattle prices as the most positive factor leading into record setting cow-calf pair rental rates. Since February 1, 2013 the largest percent in-crease in land value for Nebraska reported by survey participants occurred in hayland and graz-ing land (nontillable) classes at 26 and 24 percent respectfully. These two types of land are the pri-mary classes that service the forage requirements of cow-calf producers in the state. Percent in-crease in value of these two land classes were generally greater than 30 percent for districts lo-cated in the western two-thirds of the state. Sur-vey panel members indicated a very bullish out-look for future increases on the value of hayland and grazing land as many anticipate the prices of cattle to remain steady