Farmland cash rent is set by nine interacting factors: irrigation access, soil productivity, region, field size and accessibility, drainage, land-use category and lease type, on-site improvements, local competition for ground, and crop prices. According to USDA data, these pushed the 2022 national average to $148 per acre for cropland and $227 per acre for irrigated ground.
What Drives Farmland Cash Rent the Most?
No single factor sets a farmland cash rent by itself; a tenant farmer is really pricing in yield potential, risk, and convenience all at once, and each of the nine factors below adjusts one piece of that calculation. The table maps each factor to what it actually signals to a prospective tenant.
| # | Factor | What It Signals to a Tenant |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irrigation access | Yield reliability in a dry year |
| 2 | Soil productivity | Expected corn or soybean yield per acre |
| 3 | Region and state | Local land values and dominant crop mix |
| 4 | Field size and accessibility | Time lost to turns, point rows, and obstacles |
| 5 | Drainage | Acres actually plantable in a wet spring |
| 6 | Land-use category and lease type | Cropland vs. pasture, cash vs. share |
| 7 | Buildings and improvements | Grain storage, fencing, working pens |
| 8 | Local competition for ground | How many operators are bidding for the same acres |
| 9 | Crop prices and farm income | What a tenant can realistically afford to pay |
1. Is the Ground Irrigated or Dryland?
Irrigation is the single largest gap in the national cash rent data, and it is the first question any farm manager asks about a tract. Nationally, irrigated cropland rented for an average of $227 per acre in 2022, compared to $135 per acre for non-irrigated cropland, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. That roughly 68% premium reflects yield certainty: an irrigated field produces a similar crop whether the summer is wet or dry, while a dryland field’s output swings with rainfall. In Texas, where the difference between irrigated and non-irrigated ground is especially stark, irrigated cropland averaged $112 per acre in 2022 versus $31 per acre for non-irrigated cropland statewide, with Hartley County’s irrigated ground commanding $232 per acre, per Texas A&M AgriLife’s summary of the 2022 survey.
2. How Productive Is the Soil?
Soil productivity sets a field’s earning ceiling within its region, and tenants pay for it through tiered rental grades rather than a flat county average. The Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture’s 2022 survey grades Indiana cropland into top, average, and poor productivity tiers based on expected long-run corn yield, and found top-quality land renting for $300 per acre in 2022, average-quality land for $252 per acre, and poor-quality land for $207 per acre — the highest levels the survey had recorded since 2011-2012. Many Corn Belt states use their own soil productivity indexes to grade individual fields, and a buyer or tenant evaluating a tract will typically ask for that index before naming a number, the same way an appraiser leans on a comparable sale rather than a generic county figure. Ohio State University Extension found a similar pattern one state over: its 2022 survey projected cropland values to rise 8.0% to 11.3% and cash rents to rise 5.8% to 6.8%, with the size of the increase depending on the region and the land class within that region, according to Ohio State’s 2021-22 survey. In both states, the highest-productivity ground moved the most, because tenants bidding for scarce top-tier land had the most room to pay up.
3. Where Is the Farm Located?
Location sets the baseline that soil quality and irrigation then adjust up or down, and state-to-state differences in the 2022 data are large even among neighboring states. Georgia cropland rented for $135 per acre in 2022, unchanged from 2021, while Alabama cropland averaged $69 per acre, up $2.50, and South Carolina averaged $55.50 per acre, up $5.00, according to the same USDA NASS Southern Region release. Corn Belt states typically rent for multiples of Southeastern pasture states because their soils support higher-value row crops and their land values run higher across the board. A landowner deciding what to ask for a lease, or what a tract is worth outright, needs a price-per-acre comparison drawn from their own state and county, not a national number. Anyone weighing options for land in a specific state can start with that state’s land market page rather than a blended national figure.
4. How Big Is the Field, and Can Equipment Get to It Easily?
Field size and accessibility affect how many productive hours a tenant gets out of a piece of equipment, and that efficiency shows up directly in what they are willing to pay per acre. Ohio State University Extension’s 2022 cropland values and cash rents survey lists field size and shape, and field accessibility, among the specific factors survey respondents weigh when setting a rate, alongside market access and local crop prices, according to Ohio State’s Extension summary of the 2021-22 survey. A large, square, easy-to-enter field lets a tenant run wide equipment without constant turning, while a small or oddly shaped parcel with a narrow entrance costs time on every pass. Tenants factor that lost time into their bid the same way they factor in yield.
5. How Well Does the Field Drain?
Drainage determines how many of a field’s acres are actually plantable in a normal spring, which is why it ranks alongside soil fertility as a core rate driver in university extension methodology. Land productivity, soil quality, fertility, and drainage or irrigation capability are cited together as the primary drivers of cropland values and rents in the Ohio State Extension survey. A field with poor tile drainage or low spots that pond after rain effectively shrinks every wet year, forcing a tenant to replant or skip acres, and rational tenants discount their bid for that risk. Fields with well-maintained drainage tile hold their planted acreage consistently, which is part of why tile-improved ground commands a premium in county-level rate discussions even when the surface soil type is identical to a neighboring untiled field.
6. Is It Cropland or Pasture, and What Type of Lease?
Land-use category is the first split in how USDA tracks cash rent, and it produces the widest gap of any factor in this list: national pasture rent averaged $14 per acre in 2022, compared to $148 per acre for cropland, per USDA NASS. That gap reflects the fact that pasture generates a fraction of the revenue per acre that row crops do. The type of lease matters too: the USDA Cash Rents Survey explicitly excludes land rented for a share of the crop, rented by animal unit month, rented free of charge, or rented with farm buildings included — meaning the published county averages only reflect straight per-acre cash deals, not the share-rent or flex-lease arrangements common in some regions. A landlord and tenant negotiating a share lease or a flex lease tied to yield or price are effectively pricing risk differently than a flat cash rent does, and the county average is not a reliable benchmark for either arrangement.
7. Are There Grain Bins, Barns, or Other Improvements?
On-farm improvements add convenience value that a tenant is often willing to pay for directly, separate from the soil underneath. Ohio State’s Extension survey lists buildings and grain storage among the factors survey respondents consider when setting cropland values and rents, alongside field perimeter characteristics and wildlife damage potential, according to Ohio State’s 2021-22 survey summary. A grain bin on-site lets a tenant store a harvest without hauling it immediately to an elevator, capturing better prices later in the marketing year, and working cattle pens or perimeter fencing do the same for a livestock operation renting pasture. Improvements do not change the soil, but they change what a tenant can do with the ground, and rent reflects that.
8. How Much Competition Is There for Rentable Ground Nearby?
Local competition among operators functions as a straightforward supply-and-demand lever on top of everything else on this list. Population density and the degree of competition for cropland in a given region are cited as specific rate factors in the Ohio State Extension survey, separate from soil quality or field characteristics. In areas with several established operators seeking to expand their acreage, a landlord fielding multiple bids can push the rent above what soil quality alone would predict. In more thinly farmed regions, or areas losing population, a landlord may need to accept less even on good ground simply because fewer tenants are bidding.
9. What Are Crop Prices and Farm Income Doing?
Crop prices and tenant farm income set the ceiling on what any lease can sustain, because rent ultimately comes out of a tenant’s crop revenue. Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture economist Todd Kuethe attributed the record 2022 farmland value increases to positive net farm incomes, relatively strong commodity prices, inflation, and high farmer liquidity, while noting that rising interest rates were beginning to work in the opposite direction by raising the cost of mortgage-financed land purchases, according to Purdue’s 2022 survey results. The same income and liquidity strength behind those value gains flowed into cash rents too, which is why 2022 rents hit records alongside them. When commodity prices rise faster than input costs, tenants can absorb higher rent and still profit; when the two move together or reverse, rent increases slow or stall even on identical ground. That same 2022 farm income strength also pushed farmland values themselves higher: U.S. farm real estate averaged $3,800 per acre in 2022, up $420 from 2021, according to USDA NASS, and rising land values tend to pull cash rents upward with them since landlords benchmark rent partly against what their asset is now worth.
Should You Rent Out Farmland or Sell It?
Cash rent produces a modest, recurring return relative to the land’s value rather than a lump sum, and that trade-off is worth running the numbers on before committing to either path. A landowner earning $148 per acre on cropland valued in the thousands of dollars per acre is collecting a return well under what many other assets pay, before accounting for property taxes, insurance, and the work of finding and managing a tenant — especially for an out-of-state owner who inherited the ground or moved away from it. For owners of agricultural land who would rather convert the asset to cash now than manage a lease from a distance, AMM Land Sales makes direct cash offers on farmland, pasture, and other land types in all 50 states, contracts to purchase for its own account, pays closing costs, and closes through a licensed title company. Reaching AMM Land Sales at (815) 384-6153 costs nothing and carries no obligation to accept an offer.