Guides › Farmland

Buying farmland

A farm is priced on what its soil can grow and on what comes with the land: the tillable acres, the federal farm records, any conservation contract, the drainage, the water and the tenant. Most of that can be checked from a desk before you make an offer. The parts that cannot are the ones to write into the contract. Here is the check in the order farm buyers usually work through it.

Soil productivity: CSR2, PI, NCCPI and capability class

Farm listings quote a productivity rating for the soils, usually averaged over the tillable acres. Which rating depends on the state.

CSR2 (Iowa)	Iowa State University's Corn Suitability Rating 2 rates every Iowa soil map unit from 5 to 100 for row-crop potential, from the soil's properties, slope and erosion. Higher is better. Iowa listings, appraisals and auctions quote it as a weighted average.
PI (Illinois)	The University of Illinois's Bulletin 811 gives each Illinois soil a productivity index under top management, built from the crop yields it can be expected to produce. Higher is better. A companion bulletin, 810, rates the same soils under average management, so check which one a listing used.
NCCPI (every state)	USDA NRCS's National Commodity Crop Productivity Index rates soils from 0 to 1 for growing non-irrigated commodity crops, from the soil and the climate. It is the one rating published for every state, so it is the usual way to compare soils across state lines.
Land capability class	An NRCS grouping from I (few limits) to VIII (not suited to commercial crops), with a letter for the main problem: e erosion, w wetness, s a shallow, stony or droughty root zone, c climate. Classes I to IV can be cropped with good management; V to VIII are mostly pasture, woods or wildlife land.
Farmland class	Prime farmland, prime if drained, prime if irrigated, prime if protected from flooding, and farmland of statewide or local importance, as defined in 7 CFR 657.5. "Prime if drained" means prime where tile or ditches already handle the water.

Wetness and productivity can point in opposite directions. Drummer silty clay loam, Illinois's state soil, is poorly drained and hydric, and the survey rates it prime farmland if drained, capability class 2w: very good ground whose main limit is water. On tiled fields it is among the most productive soils in the state.

Acres by soil and the weighted average

A farm rarely sits on one soil. The rating on a listing is a weighted average: the acres of each soil times its rating, added up and divided by the total acres. A 60-acre field with 40 acres of a soil rated 85 and 20 acres rated 55 averages (40 × 85 + 20 × 55) ÷ 60 = 75. Three things change the answer.

Which acres. Averages are normally taken over the tillable acres. Counting a wooded draw or the farmstead pulls the figure down; leaving out a wet corner the tenant actually crops pushes it up. Ask which acres the listing used.
Which version. Iowa State and NRCS publish slightly different CSR2 figures for some soils, and Illinois has bulletins for average and top management. Compare like with like.
The field as it is. A rating describes the soil as mapped. An eroded slope or an untiled wet spot can yield less than its number; a well-tiled field can beat its neighbours.

You can make the table yourself for free. In USDA's Web Soil Survey, draw the field as an area of interest, open the Soil Map tab for acres and percent of each map unit, then pick a rating such as CSR2 or NCCPI in the Soil Data Explorer for the same table with the rating added.

Tillable acres, timber and pasture

Listings quote tillable or cropland acres, usually from the farm's FSA record. That figure is the cropland the Farm Service Agency has drawn as field boundaries for its programs. It is not a survey, and it can lag behind a fence row pulled out or a field let go to trees. The county assessor may count acres differently again. Look at the aerial imagery: cropland shows rows and straight field edges, while timber, grass waterways, the farmstead and pasture do not count as tillable even inside the deeded acres. Land in the Conservation Reserve Program stays on the FSA record as cropland, but you cannot farm it until the contract ends.

LandCheck's Land cover layer shows cultivated crops, pasture or hay, forest and other classes across the lower 48 states from the USGS National Land Cover Database, a quick cross-check on a listing's tillable figure. With the layer on, a click names the class under the pin. It is drawn from satellite images in 30-metre squares and can lag recent clearing or planting.

The FSA farm records

Every farm enrolled in USDA programs has a farm number and a record at the county Farm Service Agency office. The summary page, form FSA-156EZ, lists the farm and tract numbers, farmland and cropland acres, base acres by crop, any CRP acres, and the wetland and highly erodible land status. The aerial map that goes with it draws each field, which FSA calls a Common Land Unit (CLU), with its acres. The county office generally shares these only with the owner or operator, so ask the seller for both with the listing, not after the offer.

Cropland acres	The tillable acres FSA has mapped. Compare them with the listing and the imagery.
Base acres	A crop history attached to the farm that sets its eligibility for the ARC and PLC farm programs. They do not limit what you plant, and they stay with the farm when it sells.
HEL and wetland status	Whether any field is highly erodible and needs a conservation plan, and whether NRCS has made a wetland determination. Both limit what you can do with the land without losing program eligibility.

After closing, the new owner or operator updates the farm record at the county FSA office and files the conservation compliance certification, form AD-1026, before signing up for programs. The USDA Service Center locator finds the office for the county.

CRP contracts

Land in the Conservation Reserve Program is under a 10- to 15-year contract: the land stays in grass or trees and USDA pays an annual rent. The contract stays with the acres. When the land sells, the buyer can sign on as the successor, normally within 60 days, and takes over the rest of the term and the payments. If no one does, the contract ends for those acres and the seller has to refund the payments received, with interest and liquidated damages, unless USDA agrees otherwise (7 CFR 1410.51). Ask for the contract, its end date, the annual payment and who receives this year's payment, and decide before closing whether you will keep it.

Tile and drainage districts

Much of the Corn Belt's best ground is wet by nature and farmed because of tile: buried pipe that drains the subsoil into ditches or larger public drains.

Private tile. Ask for the tile maps, the age and spacing of the lines, any outlet agreements with neighbours, and recent repairs. Tile maps are usually in the owner's, the tenant's or a tiling contractor's files, not in a public record.
Drainage districts. In Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and other states, a drainage district or the county runs the main ditches and tile that farm tile empties into, and assesses the land that benefits. In Iowa the county supervisors usually act as trustees under Code chapter 468; in Indiana the county drainage board and surveyor run regulated drains under IC 36-9-27. Assessments show up on the tax bill and can jump after a repair. Ask the county auditor or surveyor whether the parcel is in a district and for its assessment history.
Farmed wetlands. Existing drainage on a farmed wetland can be maintained but not improved without risking program eligibility. Read the next section before planning new tile.

Swampbuster and the NRCS wetland determination

Farm programs carry their own wetland rule, separate from the Clean Water Act permits covered in Wetlands on a parcel. Under the wetland conservation provisions of the 1985 farm bill, known as Swampbuster (7 CFR part 12), a farmer who drains or fills a wetland to make cropping possible can lose most USDA program benefits, including the crop insurance premium subsidy. NRCS decides what counts, field by field, in a certified wetland determination issued on form NRCS-CPA-026 with a map. The labels on that map are what matter.

W, wetland	Cannot be drained, filled or newly cropped without losing eligibility, unless an exemption applies.
PC, prior converted cropland	Drained and cropped before December 23, 1985. Exempt from Swampbuster: it can be farmed and its drainage improved.
FW and FWP, farmed wetland and farmed wetland pasture	Worked before December 23, 1985 but still wet enough to count. They can be farmed or grazed as before and the drainage maintained as built, not expanded.
CW, converted wetland	Converted after the cutoff dates. Cropping it costs program eligibility until the wetland is restored or mitigated.
NW, not wetland	No wetland rule applies to that area for farm programs.

Ask the seller for the CPA-026 and its map, or read the wetland status on the 156EZ. A certified determination generally stays with the land. Where there is none, the owner or operator can ask NRCS for one on form NRCS-CPA-038, and the county FSA office also refers a request to NRCS when an AD-1026 certification lists planned drainage, clearing or other work. NRCS does the work either way, which can take a long time in a busy office, so make it a contract contingency rather than a closing-week task. The national wetlands map is a clue for where to look, not the determination, and the two can disagree in both directions.

Wells, irrigation and water rights

Water comes with the land in some states and not in others. In most of the West, irrigation water is a separate water right recorded with the state engineer or water resources agency, with its own priority date and permitted use. It has to be conveyed with the deed or by a separate transfer, and a right that goes unused for years can be lost. In much of the East, owners along a stream share reasonable use, and some states require a permit for large wells. In Nebraska, local natural resources districts regulate groundwater, and some cap pumping or the number of irrigated acres.

Get the well registrations and well logs from the state, and the irrigation permit or water right number
Ask who owns the center pivot, the pump and the power to it: a pivot can belong to the tenant or a lender and not be part of the sale
A pivot or well that serves two parcels needs a recorded agreement
Ask for metering or pumping records where the district requires them

Leases and cash rent

Many farms sell with a tenant. Many farm leases, oral ones especially, renew from year to year unless someone ends them on time; in Iowa even a written farm lease with an end date carries on for another crop year without the notice. A written lease with a fixed end date elsewhere usually just ends on that date, so read it. A sale does not end a lease: the buyer takes the land subject to the tenant's rights for the lease year. The deadlines are set by state law and come early.

Iowa	Written notice by September 1 ends the lease the following March 1 (Iowa Code § 562.6; Iowa State's Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation explains the steps).
Illinois	For a year-to-year farm tenancy, written notice at least four months before the end of the lease year; for the customary lease year ending in February, that means by October 31 (735 ILCS 5/9-206).
Elsewhere	Ask the state's extension service; most publish a farm lease guide with the notice rules.

Ask for the lease, the rent paid this year and who receives it, who gets this year's government payments, and whether the tenant has applied fall fertilizer or lime they expect to be paid back for. USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service publishes average county cash rents for cropland and pasture each year in Quick Stats, a public reference point rather than the rent for any one farm.

What land around it sold for, from public sources

LandCheck does not price land. These are the public places farm buyers look.

Extension land value surveys. Iowa State's annual Land Value Survey covers every Iowa county, Purdue's farmland value and cash rent survey covers Indiana by region and land quality, and farmdoc at the University of Illinois reports on Illinois land values and leases. They describe the market, not a particular farm; Iowa State says its survey is not meant as an estimate for any one property.
USDA's Land Values summary. NASS publishes average cropland and pasture values per acre by state each summer in its annual Land Values report.
Recorded sales. The deed at the county recorder, and in many states a sale declaration or transfer tax that shows the price. LandCheck's Last sale row shows the most recent sale where the county's parcel layer publishes one.
Auction results. Farm auctions publish results with acres and soil ratings, so the price per tillable acre and the average CSR2 or PI let you compare like with like.

Section, township and range

In about 30 states, farm deeds and listings describe land with the Public Land Survey System: "the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Section 12, Township 69 North, Range 22 West of the 5th Principal Meridian". Read it from the end. Townships count north or south from a baseline and ranges east or west from a principal meridian, which together locate a township six miles square. The section is one of its 36 numbered square miles, nominally 640 acres; a quarter section is 160 acres and a quarter of a quarter 40. Real sections are not perfect squares. Survey corrections for the curve of the earth and old measuring errors are pushed into the sections along the north and west sides of a township, where the irregular pieces are numbered as government lots, so trust the surveyed acres over the arithmetic. The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office Records hold the original survey plats and field notes.

LandCheck's search box reads a legal description typed as it is written, for example SW1/4 NW1/4 Sec 12 T69N R22W Iowa, and outlines that section or quarter on the map, so you can start from the deed when a listing has no street address.

What the desk cannot tell you

How well the tile works: a wet spring, the tenant and a tile contractor's camera can tell you; a map cannot
Actual yields: ask for yield history or crop insurance production records; the soil ratings are potential, not results
Whether the FSA and NRCS records are current and cover every field
The boundary and the acres: FSA acres and GIS acres are not surveyed acres
Who owns the minerals, a wind or solar lease, a pipeline easement and the pivot: the title commitment and the lease files say
Fertility and chemical history, and drainage assessments not yet levied

How to do it on LandCheck

Find the farm. Search the address or a parcel number, or drop a pin, then turn on Parcels and click each tract. The panel reads the county's own record: parcel number, owner where the county publishes it, acreage and the last sale where published. Parcel lines are still missing in much of rural Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky; the soil, flood and wetlands layers work there anyway, and the county pages say what each source covers. The Is my county covered? button under the Parcels switch answers for any county before you start.
Or start from the legal description. Type the section, township and range into the search box, with the quarters if you have them, to outline that piece on the map.
Turn on Soil, zoom in until the soil colours draw, and click each field. The panel's Soil section names the map unit and its drainage class, hydric rating and the Farmland row's class, such as "Prime farmland if drained". The Septic suitability row is about a drain field, not crops, so a tiled field rated Very limited there is not a poor field. Judge a field by its Farmland row and the CSR2, PI or NCCPI from Web Soil Survey or the listing, not by its colour on the map.
Switch the legend's Colour by to Farmland to see prime, prime-if-drained and other ground across the farm at a glance. Prime farmland if drained has its own colour, so the tiled ground stands out.
Draw the field with Draw Parcel to measure its acres and the terrain change across it, and compare them with the FSA cropland acres.
Turn on Land cover to see which parts of the parcel are cropland, pasture or forest, and click a spot for the class there.
Turn on Wetlands and Flood zones. Wetland polygons in a field show where to look in the NRCS determination; a flood zone across a bottom field matters for any building and for the crop in a wet year. The Wetlands row names any wetland the national inventory maps at the spot you click, in plain words beside the inventory's own type, or says none is mapped there; it is a clue for the NRCS map, not the determination.
Open Who to call in the panel for the county's website and the deed and parcel record links, then call the assessor, recorder and auditor there.
Save the place, add your notes and export the PDF to take to the FSA office, the lender and the tenant.

Open the map in Linn County, Iowa, with parcels and soils on →

Sources

Related guides

What the parcel source shows in each county LandCheck covers: parcel maps by county.

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Farm program rules change with each farm bill. The county FSA and NRCS offices, a farm manager or appraiser, and a local attorney have the final word on a particular farm.