Land rent in most Minnesota counties up in 2009

FARGO, N.D. — Crop rental rates in Minnesota were up or down in 2009, depending on the county, according to a University of Minnesota report. Most in Minnesota were up, but the report doesn’t note what happened in 2010 or likely may happen in 2011.

The annual report is presented as history only a “strictly a benchmark”, acknowledges Gary Hachfield, a University of Minnesota Extension Service agricultural business management educator based in Mankato, Minn. The report isn’t as complete as it once was, he says, explaining there are fewer people in the county Extension Service to collect and verify the figures.

The report lists average land rents, by county, for the years 2005 through 2008. For the 2009 crop year, the data includes an average rent, the median rent and a 10 and 90 percentile rent. The 10 and 90 percentile numbers act as a range of rental rates by county. There also is a table on the last page of the report that lists the percentage change in rents from 2005 to ’09 and from 2008 to ’09. Only counties with 15 or more operations reporting the data were included.

Information: www.extension.umn.edu/agbusinessmanagement

Average annual changes per year

Here are the average annual changes per year in the regions. The first is the average for five years, and the second is the average increase for the single year from 2008 to 2009. Calculations are weighted averages, to compensate for differences in acres and rental rates:

Region ’05-’09 ’08-’09

Northwest 5.1% 3.1%

West Central 6.8% 9.4%

Central 8.9% 13.9%

East Central n/a n/a

Southwest 9.9% 11.4%

South Central 9.0% 8.0%

Average rental per acre

County 2008 2009

Clay $83 $87

Mahnomen $59 $61

Marshall $45 $46

Polk $62 $61

Big Stone $81 $87

Chippewa $125 $140

Douglas $76 $70

Grant $102 $117

Otter Tail $60 $68

Stevens $90 $98

Swift $98 $106

Tags: livestock, crops, land, rent, farm, minnesota