WASHINGTON — Farmland values climbed 9.4 percent this year as high prices paid for crops and livestock after last year’s drought bolstered real estate while commodity prices fell, the Department of Agriculture said Friday.
The average value of all land and buildings on farms and ranches in the 48 contiguous states was $2,900 an acre, according to a June survey of farmers, the USDA said in an annual report, up from $2,650 a year earlier. The drought that spread through the Corn Belt and Great Plains last year prompted record insurance payments and will push farm profits to a record $128.2 billion this year as growers rebuild inventories, the USDA said in February.
The most expensive farmland was in New Jersey at $12,700 an acre, followed by Rhode Island at $11,800.
