Iowa Land Value  ·  Ownership

Press Release on Land Tenure and Conservation

A survey of Iowa landowners conducted by Iowa State University suggests that adoption of conservation practices has increased slightly since 2012, and that ongoing trends in land ownership and management are likely barriers to a number of conservation practices.

2022 Iowa Farmland Ownership & Tenure Survey

Farmland often is a farmer’s single largest investment item, a major source of collateral, and a key component of the farmer’s debt portfolio. At the macroeconomic level, the value of land and buildings represents over 80 percent of all U.S. farm assets. As a result, changes in the farmland market and the implications for farmland owners, tenants, and beginning farmers are of perennial interest to policymakers, landowners, producers, and researchers. Using a statistically representative sample of Iowa landowners in July 2022, this study provides a critical update to the Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey series and a forty-year perspective (1982 to present) on many aspects of land ownership, tenure, acquisition, succession, and characteristics of landowners, including non-operator landowners, farmland rental agreements, and the financing of farmland.

The 2022 survey also added questions on the use of working land and edge-of-field conservation practices on Iowa farmland, the developments with trusts, and potential transfers to beginning farmers. This survey carries out an Iowa legislative mandate, and represents a nationally unique study that has been conducted every five years since the 1980s to better understand agricultural land ownership, tenure, and transfer.

Authors: Jingyi Tong and Wendong Zhang

Press Conference about the 2023 Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey results

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