Many in the CCE system have ideas based upon word of mouth and perhaps some spotty statistics for the local area that they serve.

Not surprisingly, actual cash rents for farm land vary over some range. The range can be wide. Variability in productivity, intended use and other local supply and demand factors yield a range of cash rent values.

Historically, the lack of a consistent data set characterized the situation. The availability of data by county changed when the United States Department of Agriculture/National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA/NASS) responded to customer requests and new requirements of the 2008 Farm Bill. Today, results from the initial late 2008 survey efforts by the USDA/NASS through the most recent efforts for 2012 are available online.

The averages reported in Table 1 were obtained by going to Quick Stats and using the query menu on the page to make the following selections:




Program: Survey
Sector: Economics
Group: Expenses
Commodity: Rent
Data Item: Rent, Cash, Cropland Non-Irrigated... 

The pull down menus within the "Select Location" section allow for the selection of desired locations.

Table 1. Cash Rents for Non Irrigated Cropland for Selected New York State Counties in Dollars per Acre, 2012.

Please note that the values reported in Table 1 are averages, with individual observations likely varying over a wide range of values. Averages for some counties are also available for irrigated crop land and pasture land. Farmer prices paid indices available from USDA/NASS could be used to adjust the above to current price levels.

If an individual is interested in understanding guidelines associated with renting farm real estate, including approaches for establishing starting prices for negotiations from both the landlord and renters perspectives, then the following resource available at www.nwnyteam.org under the AgFocus tab should prove valuable: Guidelines for Renting Farm Real Estate in the Northeastern United States.

To learn more contact John Hanchar.



Table 1 Cash Rents in NYS Counties (pdf; 196KB)