February 2022

Every day when I’m sitting down to write something, I find there isn’t enough time. This pastor’s column, for instance, is coming in later than it should’ve, because I’m running out of time. I had people in the office, phone calls, emails, the daily hum of being in the office... and I had to write this column, a blinking cursor taunting me like the squirrels that perch above my dog’s head on the tree branches, teasing at how he’ll never get to them.

Worthington, Minn. — The annual survey has been conducted of farmland sales in 14 southwestern Minnesota counties. The survey collects bare farmland sales to non-related parties for the first six months of each year. Land values had been steadily increasing until 2014. After reaching record high prices in 2013, the upward trend was broken as prices declined in 2014 and continued down through 2017. The trend changed to an increase in 2018 and remained constant in 2019, then declined in 2020. The summary report for this survey is available at the county extension offices in Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Martin, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock, Watonwan and Yellow Medicine counties. This year the increase across the 14 counties averaged 6.4 percent. Southwest Minnesota land prices peaked at $8,466 per acre then declined in through 2017 to $6,340 until increasing in 2018 to $6,589 and declined slightly to $6,576 in 2019 and to $6,371 in 2020 until increasing in 2021 to $6,780.