Indiana Farmland Values & Cash Rental Rates

The Purdue Farmland Value and Cash Rent Survey is conducted each June. The survey respondents are knowledgeable of Indiana’s farmland market and include farm managers, rural appraisers, farmland brokers, agricultural loan officers, farmers, and Farm Service Agency (FSA) county office directors.

These professionals provide an estimate of the market value for bare poor, average, and top quality farmland in the prior December, June of the current year, and a forecast for the upcoming December. To assess productivity of the farmland, respondents provide an estimate of long-term corn yield for top, average, and poor productivity farmland. Respondents also provide a market value estimate for land transitioning out of agriculture and for recreational land.

Catch our Discussions... Land Values, Cash Rents & Market Trends

Purdue ag economists Todd Kuethe, Michael Langemeier and James Mintert discuss the 2024 Purdue Farmland Value & Cash Rental Rates survey in a two-part video podcast where they share results which confirm that the average value for Indiana farmland hit a new record high this summer.  Gain an in-depth understanding of trends, market dynamics, and future expectations for farmland values and cash rental rates.

Learn more about the Purdue Commercial AgCast podcast, plus see recent episodes!

Survey Archive

Indiana Farmland Prices Continue to Rise
August 2023

“While farmland prices reached a new peak in 2023, the appreciation rate from 2022 to 2023 was much lower than the record high price growth observed between 2021 and 2022,” said Todd H. Kuethe, Schrader Endowed Chair in Farmland Economics and the survey’s author. “Farm incomes and liquidity are playing a role in boosting price growth; however, rising interest rates continue to put downward pressure on purchases financed through mortgages.”

Indiana Farmland Prices Grow at Record Pace
August 2022

“Multiple factors are influencing the increase in farmland prices, including positive net farm incomes, relatively strong commodity prices, inflation, and high farmer liquidity,” said Todd H. Kuethe, Purdue associate professor and Schrader Endowed Chair in Farmland Economics and survey author. “However, rising interest rates are associated with increased costs of borrowing, which put downward pressure on purchases financed through mortgages.”

Indiana Farmland Prices Hit New Record High
July 2021

“A unique combination of economic forces including net farm income, expected income growth, crop and livestock prices, interest rates, exports, inflation, alternative investments, U.S. policy, and farmers’ liquidity, all played a major factor in the price increase we’re experiencing,” said Todd H. Kuethe, Purdue associate professor and Schrader Endowed Chair in Farmland Economics and survey author.

Prior reports are located at: https://purdue.ag/paer_archive

Index Numbers

Indiana farm real estate index numbers from 1912 through 1986 were taken from various USDA publications. Beginning in 1987, USDA discontinued publishing the index but continued publication of dollar estimates of farm real estate values and annual percentage changes. The index numbers from 1987 on were calculated from these published figures and were not adjusted to reflect census-based revisions on dollar values published by USDA. For this reason, year-to-year percentage changes in the index may differ from those based on dollar values published by USDA.

The data reported here provide general guidelines regarding farmland values and cash rent. To obtain a more precise value of an individual tract, contact a professional appraiser or farm manager that has a good understanding of the local market.