The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach department conducts an annual survey of landowners, farmers, and agribusiness people to determine just what is the going rate for row crop rental land in Iowa. The results are in.
Of the 1306 respondents 42% were farmers, 37% were landowners, and the remainder were farm lenders, land agents, and farm managers. The vast majority of the respondents being the men and women directly renting and farming the ground in Iowa should provide a solid footing for this survey’s accuracy.
The survey is focused intently upon corn and soybean crop land. The bread and butter of black Iowa dirt shall we say. They did not take into account for barns or buildings. It did not average pasture ground or hay or oats and definitely did not factor in any recreational value such as hunting. Your property may be chock full of horn-hauling whitetails and enough pheasants to make South Dakota jealous which would significantly increase the value, but for the purposes of this study, it doesn’t matter.
We’re just talking corn and beans here.
So, what is the average fair market price to rent and acre of cropland. We aren’t taking your neighbors or brothers-in-law word for it either. This is an Iowa State University sponsored study you can count on. That’s good to know, especially if your friend or family member is renting your ground for significantly less than these averages…it might be time to rethink that arrangement.
However, don’t forget these are averages. If your ground is flat, black, and square you might demand well above these numbers. The flip side of the coin is that if your property is hilly, or a strange shape, cut in half by a creek, heavily terraced, difficult to access, or perhaps have a lower-than-average CSR2 rating you may be below the averages.
District 6 in Eastern Iowa where I live and work is made up of ten counties. Benton, Iowa, Johnson, Linn, Jones, Cedar, Muscatine, Jackson, Clinton, and Scott come in with a 2023 average cash rental rate for corn and soybean tillable ground at $283/acre. That is up from $265/acre in 2022 and $243/acre in 2021. That’s a $40/acre increase in the last two years alone.
Here’s the breakdown by county with the average CSR2 as well.
County CSR2 Average Crop Rent/Acre
Benton 86 $293
Cedar 86 $285
Clinton 74 $265
Iowa 79 $258
Johnson 85 $275
Jackson 67 $287
Jones 77 $304
Linn 87 $308
Muscatine 83 $223
Scott 89 $331
Scott County comes in for the win in District 6 with the highest average crop rental rate at $331/acre and the highest CSR2 rating of 89. Scott county has both high quality dirt and great location with the transportation centers of the state. Counties in Eastern Iowa with higher rates tend to come from proximity to the Mississippi, as well as biofuel plants and feed mills.
In conclusion, if you’re a landowner in District 6, you should be somewhere between $258 and $331 per acre of ground for crop land depending on your county and variables. If you are not at the rate, there might be a reason, but it would definitely be something worth looking at to maximize the ROI on your property.
Steve Sherman lives in Johnson county and is a licensed land agent for High Point Land Company covering Johnson, Linn, Cedar, Muscatine, Clinton, and Scott counties. If you are buying or selling land, looking for land management, or simply need a confidential consultation about a property, please contact Steve at 319-936-2200 or steve@highpointlandcompany.com
Steve Sherman 
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