A recent report from the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers shows Illinois farmland values were strong in 2023 despite a weaking farm economy.

Luke Worrell, with Worrell Land Services in Jacksonville, tells Brownfield the results were a surprise…

“A year ago many of us would have projected a leveling off,” he says, “but Class A acreage was up another 6%, Class B acreage was up around 7%, Class C acreage was up around 14%, and even recreational land was up around 7%.”

He says a strong decline in the number of farmland sales year to year was also noteworthy…

“We kind of got spoiled in ‘21 and ‘22 and everybody seemed to have a Class A auction every 7 to 10 days, and values obviously are still there, but the number of transactions has gone down pretty steadily throughout the state,” he says.

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