Talked with the assessors office this morning.  Nice lady explained it to me. 

They have no choice in the matter.  It's the Iowa legislature that decided to rip off the farmers.  Instead of using the previous questionable method that they decide how much it takes to produce a crop they now use the CSR of the land.

So somebody somewhere decides what the CSR of your land is and how much it will produce in a perfect year.  Then they tax you on that value.

I think we should adopt the same procedure for income taxes.  If you have a bachelors degree you should be making $50k to $60K, a masters should be making $70K to $100K and a PHD should be making $100K to $200K per year.  We could then just tax you on what your potential is and what we think you should make.  Seem eminently fair.