Are you interested in buying Wyoming farmland?

If you can find a parcel, now might be a good time because the price of farmland in many areas of the state has come down, says John Pearson, owner of Buffalo, Wyo.-based Pearson Real Estate Co., which focuses much of its business on working ranches and farms in eastern and central Wyoming.

“In 2014 and 2015, the price of farmland has generally come down across the board,” Pearson says. “And, in my opinion, the price of the best farmland - class A and class B - has come down 10 to 20 percent during this period.”

Pearson ranks farmland in four classes, with A being the highest.

MAKING LAND PAY: Quality farmland in many areas of Wyoming has come down in price 10 to 20 percent since 2014, which might interest more buyers.

“An A-class farm is one that has excellent soils, very good water rights, a good number of growing days, a proven production record and a good set of buildings,” he says. “On top of all these things, the farm is in all-around excellent condition.”

Pearson says that farmland prices began increasing when commodity prices were very high from 2009 to 2012, but when commodity prices started tumbling, cropland prices soon followed.

In Wyoming, many ranches sell to people who don’t earn their living off cattle and/or sheep. Thus, ranchland values - notably recreation ranches and those ranches having good recreation values with a strong agriculture component - aren’t directly tied to livestock prices since they won’t pay for themselves with livestock alone.

Pearson, however, says it’s often a different picture for farms, which are generally located in less scenic areas of the state and haven’t yet started drawing the recreation buyers, which has helped keep prices down.

“We do have investors and speculator-type buyers of farmland, but the majority of farms sale to farmers, and farmers are very price conscious when it comes to land,” he says. “Farm sales are often directly correlated to the price of commodities.”

North-central Wyoming

A local cattle rancher acquired 120 acres of mostly irrigated farmland near Ten Sleep, a small agriculture, tourist and outdoor recreation community at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains.

The asking price was $625,000, or $5,208 per acre (the selling price was not disclosed).

“The land will allow the ranch to expand its operation by raising feed and grazing standing forage in the winter,” says Landis Benson, president of Hake Realty in Worland. The buyers pooled cash with loans from a private lender to finance the deal.

The seller was a Midwest investor who owns land and cattle as part of his holdings.