August 2026 Wallace’s Farmer MarketPlace Extra

As I sit down to write this article the week following the July 4th holiday, it feels a little like the calm before the storm. In the next 2-3 weeks, the corn crop will be in full pollination, County Fair season will be going full throttle, crop dusters will be zig-zagging the Iowa sky in full fungicide-application mode, and summer will enter its final stretch. Yikes – didn’t we just finish planting season and graduations?!?

The Iowa farmland market also resembles the comments above. For much of the past 2 years, we’ve talked about low sale volume and the mostly positive impact that the limited trickle of land sales has had on land prices. My sense is that late this summer and early fall, we may see a bigger flush of land sales than we’ve seen in some time.

I’m specifically thinking pre-harvest, between August 1 and September 30, we could see a nice batch of sales. I expect peak harvest season will then see a normal selling-season pause – e.g., for much of October – and then there will be another big run of farmland sales in the last 60 days of the year. My gut tells me that some heirs who inherited land in 2024 and 2025, and who have thought about selling but kept the farm in hopes that the land market would strengthen, are going to test the early season market and get in at the front end of the typical late fall and winter land selling season. For several June sales we handled across Iowa – and observed throughout the Midwest at Hertz Farm Management – the land market showed itself to be “Seller-friendly”. So, I understand the thinking.

Will that friendliness continue into the late summer and fall?  It always depends on local market dynamics. How strong is your local crop? Is it set up to be another bin-buster, or did your area crops flood out from one of the many 4”-8” rains that hammered so much of the State? Will the late summer grain markets move a leg higher from an export surge to China, which many have been expecting? Will this Iran war situation truly settle out, and bring fuel and fertilizer stability to input prices for the 2027 crop? How did the few June sales in your area perform?

All these market factors matter, along with a few I haven’t mentioned. Know this – demand for additional land in 2026 has thus far outpaced supply of farms for sale. And based on the sales I’m reporting below, if you are serious about acquiring additional land between now and year-end, be prepared for that Seller-friendly environment.

NORTHWEST

Palo Alto County:

Located southwest of Graettinger, 80 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $13,000 per acre. The farm consisted of 78 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 (Corn Suitability Rating index) of 80.3, and equaled $166 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

NORTH CENTRAL

Cerro Gordo County:

Located southwest of Nora Springs, 61 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $12,400 per acre. The farm consisted of 57 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 75.6, and equaled $175 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

NORTHEAST

Chickasaw County:

Located south of New Hampton, 63 +/- acres recently sold for $12,305 per acre. The farm consisted of 42 +/- cropland acres with a CSR2 of 87.6, along with 20 +/- acres of CRP, and equaled $144 per CSR2 point on the combined acres.

WEST CENTRAL

Sac County:

Located north of Sac City, 61 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $13,900 per acre. The farm consisted of 61 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 84.4, and equaled $165 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

CENTRAL

Hamilton County:

Located south of Webster City, 80 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $14,200 per acre. The farm consisted of 79 +/- cropland acres with a CSR2 of 85.1, and equaled $169 per CSR2 point on the cropland acres.

EAST CENTRAL

Benton County:

Located northeast of Dysart, 80 +/- acres recently sold for $15,750 per acre. The farm consisted of 75 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 90.3, and equaled $186 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

SOUTHWEST

Adams County:

Located west of Corning, 162 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $8,000 per acre. The farm consisted of 153 +/- tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 65.9, and equaled $129 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.  

SOUTH CENTRAL

Lucas County:

Located north of Chariton, 76 +/- acres recently sold for $8,500 per acre. The farm consisted of 70 +/- tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 59.3, and equaled $156 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres. 

SOUTHEAST

Keokuk County:

Located northwest of South English, 80 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $9,000 per acre. The farm consisted of 72 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 51.9, and equaled $193 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

Doug Hensley is President of Hertz Real Estate Services at Hertz Farm Management, a leading farmland brokerage and management firm serving landowners across the Midwest. The company specializes in farmland sales, farm management, and agricultural appraisals. Call us at 800-593-5263  or visit hertz.ag.

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