As the harvest takes a pause with the rain in central Illinois this week, producers may be doing more evaluations of those projected cash rents for this year.

Doug Gucker is a small farms educator at the University of Illinois Extension in DeWitt, Macon, and Piatt Counties and indicates farmland values are projected to be down this year.

Gucker reminds professionally managed farms are typically the highest paid in an area. He notes that it is typically acreage that produces a 220-bushel corn crop per year.

While producers are slammed with fieldwork this time of the year, Gucker indicates it is during the fall harvest when a lot of leases are negotiated and renegotiated. He adds landowners are likely not surprised by this news. 

Gucker reminds many cash rents are moving to a variable for flexible cash rents. He notes this is benefitting both the farmer and the landowner.

You can find more content from Gucker on all things small farms and agronomy by visiting extension.illinois.edu/dmp.