Wallaces Farmer

How Fractal Agriculture assesses farmland valueHow Fractal Agriculture assesses farmland value

Fractal benchmarks a field’s value using yield data, aerial imagery and other agronomic characteristics.

Gil Gullickson, Editor

January 31, 2025

1 Min Read
Farm field
BENCHMARKING: Fractal Agriculture underwrites a field’s value by benchmarking its performance against others in the region. Gil Gullickson

Discerning farmland value and future return on investment is difficult due to diversity between fields, says Ben Gordon, CEO of Fractal Agriculture.

“You can have two fields 50 feet away from each other that might need to be farmed completely different,” he says.

Fractal underwrites a field’s value by benchmarking its performance against others in the region using yield data, aerial imagery and other agronomic characteristics. Farmers who consistently outperform county average yields typically see higher valuations, Gordon says.

So far, Fractal has deployed more than $10 million in investments in 15 deals across Iowa and four other Midwestern states.

Deals always don’t come together, Gordon says. 

“We won’t do bad deals that hurt our investors and farmers,” he says. “But even if a deal doesn’t work out, we work with farm operations on an ongoing basis when another field comes up. We want agreements to work for the long term versus making a quick sale.”

About the Author

Gil Gullickson

Editor, Wallaces Farmer

Gil Gullickson grew up on a farm that he now owns near Langford, S.D., and graduated with an agronomy degree from South Dakota State University. Earlier in his career, he spent 13 years as a Farm Progress editor, covering Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Gullickson is a widely respected and decorated ag journalist, earning the Agricultural Communicators Network writing award for Writer of the Year three times, and winning Story of the Year four times. He is a past winner of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists’ Food and Agriculture Organization Award for Food Security. He has served as president of both ACN and the North American Agricultural Journalists.

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