$500 Cash Rent?

Not so fast:

Rumors that some Corn Belt farmers are paying $500 cash rents in 2012 sound like that imaginary rabbit friend named Harvey in the Jimmy Stewart movie to me. In other words, they may exist but nobody in the know can confirm it.

More reliable are surveys of average cash rents—and they remain at much more reasonable levels (see table below).

Once again, Illinois takes the prize for most extreme cash rent but Iowa isn’t far behind. According to data released by the National Agricultural Statistics Service last week, Illinois’s Macon County tops the list with an average cash rent of $260 an acre in 2011. Iowa’s top county—Hamilton—weighed in at seventh place with an average of $235.

In fact, Illinois claims 19 of the top 25 most expensive farmland rental counties in the U.S. , all topping $200 an acre. Most of them are located in northern and central Illinois. Iowa fielded the remaining six counties on the top hit list. In fact, no other state made the list until Faribault County, Minn. (No. 64).

Cash rent rumors are some of the biggest whoppers in the Heartland.  I usually assume about 75 to 80 percent of the number told.