2022 Spring Farm Outlook

Page 18 Spring 2022 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March / April 2022 Spring 2022 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March / April 2022 Page 19 expected. He further commented that land prices are skyrocketing right now. Lincoln College Board of Trustees Chairman Patrick Doolin echoed Ryan’s comment, showing no displeasure at how the sale went. Among the spectators in the room was long- time farm manager and farm loan officer for the State Bank of Lincoln, Dave Irwin. Irwin said the bank has no vested interest in the sale of the land, and he was there just to see how it all went. He also noted that SBL had been managing the land for the past 19 years, so he knew personally that what the buyer was getting was prime farm land, flat, and ready to till and plant for this year. Irwin also fielded a few questions about the value of farmland in general in Logan County and this sale specifically. He noted that farm values are going up and that the buyer of this particular piece of ground will more than likely have cash in hand or at least a big portion of it. He said that with these prices, no one is going to be able to afford to finance the entire tract and expect to ever come out on top. Asked why anyone would buy the land then, he noted that the buyer, if he has cash in hand will do well with the land. And, the buyer will build equity in his farm. Whether or not these land prices will hold into the future is somewhat unknown. But some like Dale Apperle are pretty sure that this is a trend that will go into the future for a while at least. “In 2022, we expect farmland values to remain strong and trending higher,” Apperle says. He also provides a chart showing land value performance in central Illinois and a list of the last 20 land sales. “You can see the average price of those transactions was $16,740. The range was from $15,000 to $22,500 per acre.” Apperle has spent more than 40 years in the farm sale business and over those years his firm has carefully followed the land value trends in Central Illinois. Continue 8