Land News
Farmland is an essential resource for American agriculture. As stewards of the land, farmers and ranchers strive to maximize per-acre value while prioritizing soil health, water conservation and wildlife management. A key indicator of the financial health of the farm sector, farmland values can be influenced by commodity prices, land quality and other factors.
The year-over-year gain in agricultural land values in the third quarter of 2011 for the Seventh Federal Reserve District was the largest in just three decades.
It’s true falling farm incomes are pressuring cash rents. But rates typically move slowly.
In a bizarre land rights and endangered species case, what will the Supreme Court decide about Casper the Ghost Frog and 1,500 private acres belonging to Edward Poitevent?
A law requiring foreign investors to report transactions of farmland to the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been on the books for almost 40 years. But as the amount of foreign-controlled farmland doubled in millions of acres between 2004 and 2014, the USDA has lapsed in enforcing the law, a review of USDA documents has found.
In 2013, the Chinese firm Shuanghui received wide public attention when it purchased U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods for a record $4.7 billion. That purchase was just a part of a continuing surge in foreign investment in American farmland and food that has raised concerns in Congress and among rural advocacy groups.
Democratic candidate Chuck Hassebrook said he would work to lower property taxes, but he’d prefer that most of the benefits go to owner-occupied farms and landowners who actually live in Nebraska.
Commodity prices may be down, but land prices remain on the rise, according to the latest USDA Land Values Summary.
The farm bill is a complex piece of policy covering energy, agriculture, nutrition and the environment. Private land conservation was the first to come to a standstill.
Does the 2012 drought mean sky-high crop insurance premiums for 2013? Absolutely not, says William Murphy, administrator of USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA).