As harvest 2026 approached, the grain markets made a nice move higher on strong demand and worldwide supply concerns — north of $5 per bushel for new-crop corn and $13 or more per bushel for new-crop soybeans. We talked about several of the reasons why in last month’s column.
With average or better crops, profit potential in the 2026 crop is real. This late-growing-season grain market strength also has powered a sizable volume of pre-harvest land sales.
Many market observers — including us at Hertz Farm Management — believe these pre-harvest land sales have trended slightly higher overall.
It seems the increasing land sale supply was met with an equal notch higher in demand.
However, on the last day of September, USDA’s quarterly Grain Stocks report surprised the market with more old-crop corn than expected. So, as I write here at the beginning of October, some of the commodity market enthusiasm has been muted.
But things still look much brighter than 12 months ago. The corn market is just shy of a dollar-a-bushel higher than a year ago, and soybeans are more than $2 per bushel higher than this same time in 2025. Even with the dip in late September, on-farm profits are still in sight.
Let me reframe it this way: If on Jan. 1 I had asked any farmer whether they’d be happy with $5 corn and $12.50 beans at harvest, I believe the vote would have almost been unanimous.
I believe that is one of the reasons farmers continue to show interest in new land acquisition opportunities. They know that farmland assets are the most fundamental input to production agriculture, and they can see the big picture and forge on, even if things turn negative in the short term.
Farmland buyers approach land with a long-term lens despite the pull on their emotions from the weekly (and daily) ups and downs in the grain markets.
Here are recent Iowa land sales of note:
Buena Vista County. Southwest of Rembrandt, ± 137 acres recently sold at public auction for $10,525 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 123 tillable acres with a Corn Suitability Rating index of 83.3, and equaled $141 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres. Note: The nontillable land of this property includes multiple waterways and terraces.
Mitchell County. North of Osage, ± 155 acres recently sold at public auction for $17,300 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 151 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 88.4, and equaled $201 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Chickasaw County. South of Ionia, ± 74 acres recently sold at public auction for $18,100 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 71 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 87.2, and equaled $216 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Harrison County. East of Persia, ± 156 acres recently sold at public auction for $11,300 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 156 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 70.8, and equaled $160 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Grundy County. Northeast of Wellsburg, ± 116 acres recently sold at public auction for $14,000 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 112 cropland acres with a CSR2 of 90.5, and equaled $160 per CSR2 point on the cropland acres.
Benton County. Northeast of Dysart, ± 80 acres recently sold for $18,500 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 74 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 97.3, and equaled $205 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres. Note: This farm included an older home and building site that were recently removed, and those acres will be farmed in the future.
Fremont County. North of Hamburg, ± 43 acres recently sold at public auction for $8,300 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 38 tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 73.6, and equaled $128 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Ringgold County. Northwest of Diagonal, ± 80 acres recently sold for $6,300 per acre. The mixed-use farm consisted of ± 30 tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 69.1, along with ± 40 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program that paid $259 per enrolled acres, with the balance of acres in timbered draws and waste.
Washington County. West of Wellman, ± 144 acres recently sold at public auction for $12,400 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 144 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 70.6, and equaled $176 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.