September 2025 Wallace’s Farmer MarketPlace Extra

2025 appears to be shaping up as a different year, compared to recent years. 

• Difference #1: Most of Iowa (and the Midwest) has enjoyed plentiful rain throughout the growing season – in some areas, too much rain.  This has broken a streak of 3+ consecutive years when we lacked consistent rain. 
• Difference #2: Thanks to the generous moisture and little crop stress, we never really saw a summer grain market rally, and commodity prices have generally trended lower for 6 months – painfully so, to below breakeven levels.  When is the last time we saw grain market highs in February?  Since 1970, the answer is once for corn, and never for soybeans. 
• Difference #3: While the full jury is still out, it seems we have a stable land market despite a second consecutive year of weak row-crop profitability.  How can this be?

There are several things in play.  I’ve written previously about the lack of land for sale, which has supported land prices.  Yes, overall demand for land is down given the weaker economic conditions – but supply of land for purchase has been down even more.  Thus, it seems there has still been enough demand to maintain land price stability.  Second, we enjoyed an early year financial boost, both from the grain markets and from the government.  A large volume of stored 2024 grain was sold in early 2025 at profitable levels, which bailed out many who had stored unpriced grain last fall.  And when that was combined with the free spring-season ECAP payments, there was still cash in the countryside to allow consideration of a land purchase.  Sure, buyers have been more hesitant to deploy valuable working capital – but there are still buyers.  And finally, we are now staring at what many expect to be a record corn crop.  The expectation for big bushels this fall, combined with the sector’s overall financial strength built during the good times, makes land purchases still possible.  I need to be clear here – the land market is flat and is not in a current uptrend.  But in the past, back-to-back years of weak commodity prices would have resulted in widespread weakness.  2025 appears to be different.

NORTHWEST

O’Brien County:

Located southwest of Hartley, 152 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $14,000 per acre. The farm consisted of 143 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 (Corn Suitability Rating index) of 93.1, and equaled $160 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

NORTH CENTRAL

Mitchell County:

Located north of Nora Springs, 75 +/- acres recently sold for $16,360 per acre. The farm consisted of 75 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 91.6, and equaled $179 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

NORTHEAST

Bremer County:

Located north of Plainfield, 169 +/- acres recently sold for $5,918 per acre. The mix-use farm consisted of 83 +/- tillable acres, of which 44 +/- acres were cropped and 39 +/- acres are enrolled in CRP until 2030; the balance of the property was river-bottom timber. This property also included an older farmhouse (1910) and farm buildings.

WEST CENTRAL

Greene County:

Located east of Rippey, 160 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $15,550 per acre. The farm consisted of 155 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 86.2, and equaled $186 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

CENTRAL

Marshall County:

Located near Liscomb, 77 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $14,000 per acre. The farm consisted of 75 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 92.7, and equaled $155 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

EAST CENTRAL

Linn County:

Located north of Mt. Vernon, 116 +/- acres recently sold at public auction for $17,700 per acre. The farm consisted of 109 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 93.8, and equaled $201 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

SOUTHWEST

Taylor County:

Located southwest of Bedford, 191 +/- acres recently sold for $5,405 per acre. The farm consisted of 154 +/- tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 52.3, and equaled $128 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres. Note: The balance of this land was comprised of timbered draws.

SOUTH CENTRAL

Wayne County:

Located west of Corydon, 37 +/- acres recently sold for $6,189 per acre. This farm features a CSR2 rating of 45.1 and consists of pasture/hay ground with a pond, and areas of timbered draws.

SOUTHEAST

Washington County:

Located north of Washington, 40 +/- acres recently sold for $16,300 per acre. The farm consisted of 37 +/- tillable acres with a CSR2 of 83.8, and equaled $210 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.

Hensley is president of Hertz Real Estate Services, which compiled this list, but did not handle all sales. Call Hertz at  800-593-5263  or visit hertz.ag.

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