Illinois farmers can expect farmland value stability into the fourth quarter, according to the third-quarter outlook by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

“The key thing for Illinois farmers from our third-quarter data is that there are still fairly stable land markets for farmland, but at the same time there’s a continuation of the challenging circumstances in terms of financial conditions,” said David Oppedahl, Chicago federal senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

The survey of 188 agriculture bankers showed that Illinois will likely experience a 1 percent decrease from 2017 for farmland values into the fourth quarter and year-over-year.

While two-thirds of respondents indicated they believe that farmland values will remain stable for the district during the fourth quarter of 2018, 32 percent of agriculture bankers expect a decrease. The report also showed 2 percent of respondents expected an increase in farmland values from over the same time period.

The farming situation is proving to be a challenge for farmers that facing low soybean and corn prices with the loss of China as a customer, however.

“The trade war with China continues to keep particularly soybean prices lower than they would have been, so it will be helpful to get market facilitation and payment to bolster some of the bottom line. But at the same time it’s still an uncertain endgame on how everything will play out,” Oppedahl said.

“It seems likely that we’ll continue to have a challenging time going forward given where corn and soybean prices are, even though the really amazing yields helped to kind of shore up this year,” he added.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago outlook looks at the district of northern Illinois and Indiana, all of Iowa, the lower peninsula of Michigan and portions of Wisconsin.

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