Cash Rent Averages Unexpectedly Up Slightly in 2025

A farm management specialist at the University of Illinois says cash rent averages revealed a few unexpected things in 2025.

Gary Schnitkey says despite the slumping ag economy, some Corn Belt land rental rates increased.

“We saw rents stay the same to increase slightly.” He says, “For example, on excellent quality land, cash rent went up $5 an acre. And I would say that the increase was a bit of a surprise.”

Schnitkey says it’s also unusual to see rents for high-quality land go up when overall values for that same land fall.

“Cash rents on excellent and good quality land increased, and average and fair quality land decreased a bit.” He says, “We saw excellent and good quality farmland prices maybe dip a bit, and average and fair just kind of hang in there and maybe increase, so sort of the opposite, and that’s a curveball.”

He says, “I would attribute that to the good yields, as well as those government program payments that will total about $100 per acre and keep things afloat in the agricultural sector for this year.”

Schnitkey says competition for land and other regional conditions play a role in cash rent prices, but rates are predicted to remain stable heading into 2027.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

Unexpected is right! Who would predict that with land prices stable to slightly lower in most states, rental rates would increase? But apparently it did happen and farmers will have to somehow compensate. Increased yields or commodity prices are normally the only ways to recover the additional cost, but both are highly unpredictable. Hopefully one or the other of these possibilities can occur and help those facing increased land costs. This is especially true with fertilizer and other input costs increasing concurrently.

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