Land to Solar

Land to Solar

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
The stronger land prices of late 2021 continued higher through the first half of 2022. After a calm period at the start of the year in which the land market remained steady, sales prices took another jump up as a result of the outbreak of war in Ukraine and ongoing inflation fears. Farmers saw stronger commodity prices and investors wanted a low-risk inflation hedging investment, which together propelled the competition for good cropland.   

 

“Prices for good quality cropland are up 20 percent in some areas since the first of the year. Recent Farmers National Company auction sales demonstrate the strength in the land market so far in 2022. Good land that was selling for around $16,000 last fall sold for $19,000 to $21,500 per acre at company auctions in March. This increase in prices is on top of a 15 to 30 percent jump in value across most Grain Belt states in 2021,” said Randy Dickhut, senior vice president for Farmers National Company. 

The American Farmland Trust says in this country, we're losing about 2000 acres of farmland every day to development. And now to solar panels. More and more farmers turning their crop and livestock production farms into solar farms, Farmland Trust President John Viotti told a webinar he's not against putting solar panels on farms, but he says, let's. Speaker2: Be smart. Speaker1: About it. Either figuring a way to still produce crops and livestock amongst the solar panels, or. Speaker2: There are opportunities to put solar on marginal land, put solar and on brownfields. Speaker1: But he says right now they're. Speaker2: Unfortunately losing a lot of really good farmland under solar panels. Speaker1: Indiana farmer and ag consultant Kip Tom told the seminar. Speaker3: It really bothers me when I see a solar farm going up and I know the need across the Atlantic, Ocean or Pacific for that food that will no longer be produced on that farm anymore from those quality soils.

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