In a recent land auction, Halderman Real Estate Services, based in Wabash, auctioned off 189 acres in Shelby County, Ind. – six parcels in five different townships.
All 189 acres are zoned agricultural and consisted of 176.86 acres tillable and 7.98 acres wooded. The individual parcels ranged from 18.22 acres to 58.56 acres.
Individual tracts varied from a high of $10,260 per acre to a low of $5,686 per acre, bringing an average price of $7,993 per acre. The auction, held at Occasions Banquet Hall, took less than 45 minutes. All tracts were sold individually.
This auction outcome was consistent with Purdue University's recent Agricultural Economics Report from August, 2013, which indicated that while Indiana suffered from a drought in 2012, farmland values continued to increase. The drop in supply led to all time high prices which more than offset the lower yields.
Once crop insurance was factored into the equation, farm income was much better than expected.
According to the report, "High net farm income combined with favorable interest rates, strong farmland demand, and a limited supply of farmland for sale pushed farmland values and cash rents higher."
As a whole, United States cropland rose 13.0% in value from 2012 to 2013; In Indiana, land rose 14.5%. For the state as a whole, the largest change from 2012 to 2013 was top land, increasing 19.1% to $9,177 per acre. Average quality cropland increased 17.1% to a value of $7,446 per acre. Poor quality land increased 14.7% to a value of $5,750 per acre.
Reports from other land sales in both Indiana and Illinois late this fall also indicate that land values are still holding strong.
For the full Purdue Agricultural Economics Report, click here.