Introduction
In Minnesota, based upon Census of Ag data, approximately 40 percent of total land in farms is rented. Landowners, operators, and ag professionals often contact the University of Minnesota requesting land rental rate information. This article is one response to those requests. It is important to remember that no survey, statistical analysis, or data reporting is perfect. The information included in this article is meant only to be a guide and not an absolute. The information and data is not meant to establish, determine, set, fix, or even hint at what actual rents should be. It is a reporting of historical land rental rates and an attempt to use this historical trend data to look into the future.

Historical rental data is included for years 1997 through 2005. Average rental rates are listed by county for each year. The 2005 data also includes the median cash rent and the 10 and 90 percentile range. The 2006 and 2007 year rents are projections using the historical data trend. Again, these are only projections and are not meant to be used as absolute rental rates.

Data Source
The land rental data shown in the data tables is extracted from FINBIN, a database of farm record summaries of nearly 2,400 Minnesota farmers. The farmers participate in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Farm Business Management program as well the Southwestern and Southeastern Minnesota Farm Business Management Associations. At the end of each year, farmer participants analyze their records for the year. Included in the analysis is land rental data.

Analysis Method
All row crop acres, small grain acres, canning crop acres, etc. were included in the data analysis. Not included in the analysis were acres allocated to pasture, aftermath grazing, all hay and haylage acres, CRP acres, fallow, and prevented planted acres. All normal farming practices for the regions were included in the analysis.
Data was analyzed by county. Counties with a minimum of 15 farms reporting land rent data were included in the analysis. If a given county does not appear in the data table, there were not enough farms reporting data.

Data Results
The table below summarizes the county data for northwest MN expressed in dollars. 

Table 1. Farmland rental rates for Northwest Minnesota.

The land rental data listed is an average of all the farms reporting land rent for that specific county and year. For the 2005 crop year, in addition to the average, the 10th and 90th percentile are included to reflect the range of cash rents. In other words, only 10 percent of the farms paid lower rents than the “10th Pctile” figure and 10 percent paid higher rents than the “90th Pctile” amount. The median or 50th percentile is also presented. Since 2005 is the latest year of actual data available in FINBIN, the final two columns include trend-line county average land rents for the 2006 and 2007 crop years. The projected rental rates were determined by drawing a line that most closely matches the historical averages (years 1997 – 2005). That trend-line is then projected forward for two more years. The land rental rates for 2006 and 2007 are simply a statistical indication of where rents might be IF the historical trend were to continue.

Average Annual Change in Rent 1996-2005
The average annual change for Northwest Minnesota for the period 19996-2005 was 0.75% and for West Central 3.01%. The calculations are weighted averages so the difference in acres and rental values from the various counties in each region are compensated for.
The percentage figures are not meant to dictate or determine future increases but are merely to get an idea of how regional rental values have changed over the years.
Keep in mind that rental rates in the calculations include both family and long-term rental contracts. Rental rates between family members are generally lower than those between un-related parties. Longterm rental contracts generally do not change during the length of the contract and therefore will affect the average numbers used in the data calculations.

Those who wish to search FINBIN for land rental data specific to a county or region (assuming there are enough farmers reporting rent values) as well as other farm data, can do so by going to the following website:

http://www.finbin.umn.edu

Gary Hachfeld, Regional Extension Educator, Mankato
William Lazarus, University of Minnesota Extension Economist, Farm Management
Dale Nordquist and Rann Loppnow, Center for Farm Financial Management