Cash rent rates could be up by as much as 20 percent next year, according to an ag real estate expert.

Randy Dickhut, Senior Vice President of Real Estate Operations with Farmers National Company, says the increase is driven by high commodity prices and yield expectations.

But, he tells Brownfield rising input costs are decreasing net farm income are leading to lower-than-expected rates. “We’re thinking that the rents would be up fairly significantly and then as the past few months went along, we saw some input costs specifically fertilizer increase pretty dramatically,” Dickhut says.

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