Farmerboy1973 and others:

Prices are set at the margin, so it would not take a lot of farm land to go on the auction block for prices to drop drastically if at that particular time there happens to be no or few bids. There might not even be that much land changing hands, but the price could be low because of lack of people wanting to buy at that particular time if economic conditions caused everyone to be cautious.

It really does not mean much to the average farmer if land prices go up or down a bunch, as long as they are not leveraged to the point they can not make the payments. Most farmers don't sell anyway, so it makes no difference.

The ones it could make a difference to are the ones over leveraged and not able to make the payments, and farmers or investors that want to get out of land for retirement, estate settlement, or any other reason that might put them in a position of needing to sell at an inopportune time.

I am going to bring up the 80's. I went through them, watched my land be upside down where I owed more than the ground would have sold for, kept the payments up, and the price that could be fetched today is twice or triple what I paid.

So land prices are mostly irrelevant to most farmers, unless they are wanting to buy some more or are in a position they need or are forced to sell. The rest of a farming career it is income from the land, not its disposal value that is important.

The only ones need worry are the ones that paid more than they can afford to make payments on. The rest is nothing but numbers on a balance sheet piece of paper.

John