Land Values Trend Up
If you are a young person it’s nearly impossible unless you either are born into a ranching family or inherit substantial funds to get into the business of cattle ranching, because it takes so much initial capital. Soaring agricultural land values are part of the problem. I’m Susan Allen, I”ll explain when Open Range returns. Purdue University just completed a study of land values in the Midwest that has application for the Northwest . All of the rural land appraisers and farm managers surveyed reported agricultural land values substantially increased since February of last year. Because of this, Craig Dobbins, an agricultural economist at Purdue warned those in the market for agricultural land that the dangers of paying today’s extremely high prices could back fire if land values or commodity prices decrease. Like we’ve experienced with the housing market buyers of farm land need to prudent in regards to farm dept levels. While the depressed housing market is attracting investors ( especially in cities like Phoenix and Vegas), in 2010 only 23 % percent of farmland was purchased by investors while 72 percent was bought by existing farmers. New first time farmers accounted for only 4 percent. With the global population growth of the middle class throughout the world the pilgrimage of American ranchers to places like Brazil and Argentina appears to be losing ground as there is only so much productive land to be had. Long term projection from the Purdue survey expected farmland values to remain steady or trend hig
