(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State University Farmland Value survey showed a shift this year in the county with the highest land value. I-S-U’s Rabail Chandio oversees the survey.  “O’Brien [County] was the was the highest value county last year, this year, it has switched to Sioux County, but still in the northwest,” she says. Scott County in eastern Iowa had held the top spot for farmland value for many years before it recently switched to the northwest. Chandio says another shift saw lower quality ground in southern Iowa top the list for increases in dollar value. “Some of the southern counties, although in value (land quality) they are the lowest, they saw the highest increase in land values,” Chandio says. She says the increase in the southern farmland value is tied to uses outside of farming.

“So a lot of demand, investor demand for southern land comes from recreational use from hunting from these kinds of factors. And if you’re going to buy land for hunting, the land quality, the grain prices or the commodity market or the farm sector is not really as big of a factor in your purchase or your pricing of land, ” she says. Chandio says the southern counties have lagged behind other counties in price increases because the normal land value issues don’t impact them as much.

“The northern counties are the rest of the state more so is more affected by the farm environment or the farm economy which is why it’s reacting first,” Chandio says. “But that’s always been the case that the South has a little bit of lag.” Chandio says the purchase of land for recreational uses like hunting hasn’t change the overall profile of land buyers. “The major buyers of farmland still remain the farmers. Last year this number was 68 percent. This number has it has increased even more at 70 percent,” she says. “So 70 percent of all farmland purchases are done by existing farmers, local or relocating. And then 24 percent of the purchases are attributable to investors, which include both local and non local investors.”

Chandio says the investor activity is higher in the southern part of the state and the investors say their primary reasons for buying land are more recreational.