The Long-Term Value of Farmland
Farmland owners with a long-term view expect to realize increased worth in their property, and values continue to climb in much of the country. Those are the headlines from a report in the High Plains Journal.
Dr. Ernie Goss – director of the Institute for Economic Inquiry and a professor of economics at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business – said that land values are not climbing as fast as they had been in previous years, according to his survey of rural financial lenders, but they are still going up.
Goss told the High Plains Journal that landowners know that land doesn’t usually change hands often. “If they see a piece of land with proximity to their operation they are going to take a look at it. They know it may be 40 years before it will come up for sale again and that’s an incentive to buy it,” he said.
The High Plains report also acknowledged that agriculture payments from the federal government also likely put upward pressure on land values.
Why Is Jimmy Carter’s Family Farm Becoming Public Land?
The Georgia farm where the late Jimmy Carter, the nation’s 39th president, grew up will be preserved permanently as public land. The Conservation Fund, a non-profit organization that buys at-risk land that has high conservation potential to protect it, announced the transformation for the land.
“Long before Jimmy Carter protected millions of acres across America, he was a boy working the fields and roaming the woods of southwest Georgia,” said Stacy Funderburke, vice president of the central Southeast region at The Conservation Fund. “This land shaped him and his legacy, and he never stopped coming home to it. We’re honored to help ensure this land remains healthy habitat for wildlife, and we look forward to the day it is open to everyone who wants to experience it.”
Carter’s farm covered 2,458 acres just outside Plains. Carter spent his youth on the family farm that grew peanuts, corn, and sugarcane. He hunted turkeys on the land and fished in the pond.
As president, Carter championed conservation and a national commitment to the environment.
“For our family, this land was always about more than a farm. It was home — a place my grandparents treasured. We’re grateful to The Conservation Fund and to everyone working to make sure it’s protected for generations to come,” said Jason Carter, grandson of President Carter.
The Conservation Fund said that the property could be open to the public for hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation as soon as 2027. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is scheduled to take over transfer of the property in 2028.
RELATED: American Farmland Owner looked at the legacy Jimmy Carter left on agriculture after he died in December 2024.
