TOTAL Survey
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service issued findings from the latest TOTAL Survey, or Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land survey.
And, NASS’s Bryan Combs says landowners rented out a lot of land to farmers for growing crops …
COMBS … “We last conducted this survey in 2014, and it's basically gathering information on both operating landlords and non-operating landlords. Those landlords collectively rented out 350 million acres of farmland. There were over two million landlords who leased agricultural land to farmers. This is a slight increase from 2014.”
Combs says of the 348 million acres of land rented, over 85% is in the Plains, Midwest, and Western states, with roughly 60% rented out as cropland …
COMBS … “If we look at who is renting out that land, there are over one million non-operating landlords, and we compare that to 260,000 operating landlords. Those non-operating landlords have asset values that total $1.7 trillion, which is a 47% increase from 2014.”
Combs said debt rose for landowners participating in the survey during the past decade, but remained relatively low, at about 3% of the land debt building value.
And most landlords own their land debt-free and don't have any recent capital expenditures.
The average age of principal operators did increase to 69.2 years old, up from 66.5 years in 2014.
