Farmland Sales Beginning to Slow
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Farmland sales are generally starting to slow down late this summer. Randy Dickhut, a farmland sales expert with Agricultural Economic Insights, says there are two reasons activity is slowing down.
Dickhut… “One would be that it’s normal this time of year, through this post-planting into the summer and leading up towards that pre-harvest time, it does slow down. There still are auctions going on year-round and every month of the year. They didn’t used to be for various reasons, but they are now. Secondly, I think it's just natural that when there's more activity in a market, it's naturally going to take a breather and slow down some. Kind of like what we saw in that 2012-2013 timeframe, those prices went up, and you had someone who was thinking about selling. They decide, ‘I think I will go out and sell.’ So those jump into the market, get sold on that way out, typically, and then that's taken care of. And so, we back on down to the natural sale level.”
Dickhut said that prices in the farmland market seem to be cooling off a bit, and with predicted lower commodity prices in the months ahead, farmers are likely to continue to be more cautious about land purchases.
