It’s time for our annual review of land prices. What does ASFMRA’s Rural Land Value Trends publication have to say about rural and agricultural land for the Panhandle and the Rolling Plains?
Dates and Deadlines
11/30/2021 – Virtual wheat and soil field days
11/9/2021 – WASDE
12/1/2021 – Texas Wheat Symposium
12/7/2021 – Swisher County Ag Meeting
12/8/2021 – Armstrong County Fall Producers Meeting
1/19 – 1/20/2022 – Red River Crops Conference
1/25, 1/26, 1/27, 2/9, 2/10, 2/23, 2/24, 3/9, 3/10/2021 – Amarillo Master Markter
What We’re Reading
Think Safety While Hunting – AgriLife Today
Groups share concerns of shortages, crippling prices due to tariffs on fertilizers – Morning Ag Clips
Keeping Cattle on the Move and Carbon in the Soil – New York Times
Farmer sentiment weakens amid rising concerns of a cost-price squeeze – CME Group
Wheat prices are soaring as harvests falter and stocks shrink – Bloomberg
House Approves $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill, Sending to Biden’s Desk – Wall Street Journal
What’s in the Build Back Better Act for Ag? – Feedstuffs Daily
Master Marketer Dates for Amarillo Set
As you can see in the Dates and Deadlines section the Amarillo Master Marketer dates are set. Final speaker schedules are still being established, but the dates are locked in. Registration will open around Thanksgiving. If you have questions call the Amarillo AgriLife Center at 806 677 5600 and ask to leave a message with Lacrecia Garza.
The Master Marketer program is a 64-hour intensive marketing education course during which agricultural producers, ag lenders, and others are trained in marketing techniques, marketing plans, technical analysis, futures and options, and many other marketing related skills. This set of skills becomes their marketing “toolkit” which equips them to apply the skills to many situations that might arise when conducting agricultural business. More information will follow soon.
Land Value Trends
Each year the Texas Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers publishes an overview of rural real estate activity. The publication contains land values, rental ranges, and commentary on trends in the rural real estate market from the previous year. It also contains an update on more current trends from the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center.
One of the major takeaways for the 2021 update from the Real Estate Center seems to be a significant uptick in the statewide volume of rural land sales. From 2020 – 2021 sales were up 33%. This confirms the trend those that live in rural areas saw firsthand; people flocked to the country during the pandemic and many out-of-state buyers relocated to Texas. The increase in volume drove statewide prices up 9.43% while typical size fell 21.63% to 1,051 acres.
Interestingly, prices remained stable or retreated on average in the Panhandle and South Plains, though transaction volume was up. This is good news given that input prices are a major concern in the upcoming year.
Panhandle
In the report, Region 1 consists of land from Ector and Midland county north, bordered to the east roughly by the caprock escarpment and on the west by New Mexico. Within Region 1, the North Panhandle includes Dallam, Sherman, Hansford, Ochiltree, Lipscomb, Hartley, Moore, Hutchinson, Roberts, Hemphill, Oldham, Potter, Carson, and Gray counties. Within the north panhandle most land values remained stable. The most significant change was a 56% jump in the value of dry cropland toward the west.
North Panhandle
The South Plains consists of Deaf Smith, Randall, Armstrong, Parmer, Castro, Swisher, Briscoe, Bailey, Lamb, Hale, Floyd, Cochran, Hockley, Lubbock, and Crosby counties. Values in this county grouping were stable across the board other than a 25% increase in the value of Rangeland. In 2019 the upper limit of rangeland prices was an estimated $1,200, while in 2020 that figure rose to $1,500. Rental ranges for rangeland remained stable despite the land value increase. An interesting note in the publication pointed out that CRP land is being purchased for conversion to organic irrigated cropland.
South Plains (Amarillo to Lubbock)
Government assistance and cheap interest rates seem to have driven land purchases from Lubbock south to Midland. The region between Lubbock and Ector/Midland counties includes Yoakum, Terry, Lynn, Garza, Gaines, Dawson, Borden, Andrews, Martin, Howard, Ector, and Midland. Oil and gas becomes more important to land value further south in the region. This sub-region saw the most change year over year. The minimum land value increase was 21% year over year for irrigated cropland and CRP land. On the other end of the spectrum, rangeland increased in value by approximately 43% on the minimum price threshold.
South Plains (Lubbock to Midland)
Since Pancho Abello, stationed in Vernon, has joined the blog I am going to include some of the material from the publication on the Rolling Plains region that stretches from Childress to Decatur. Counties include Archer, Baylor, Childress, Clay, Collingsworth, Cottle, Dickens, Donley, Foard, Hall, Hardeman, Jack, King, Knox, Motley, Throckmorton, Wheeler, Whichita, Willbarger, and Young. Stable is the name of the game in the region, other than irrigated cropland, which saw an 8% increase in value from 2019 to 2020. Across all regions, input prices for the upcoming crop year are a concern.
Rolling Plains
