Midwestern farmland values remain strong despite a weakening ag economy.

Compeer Financial director of appraisal Adam Schmidt says a dramatic increase in interest rates should put downward pressure on the land market.

“Land is more expensive to finance, that investor category has other attractive alternative investments to earn a higher return. So it starts asking the question ‘why haven’t we really seen a decrease in land values?”

He tells Brownfield the answer mostly has to do with several years of strong farmer profitability resulting in excess working capital.

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