Utah farmlands, pastures rise in value

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah agricultural real estate, including land and buildings on farms, is valued at $1,900 per acre, up 5.6 percent from last year but lower than the national average of $2,900 per acre, a 9.4 percent increase.

Croplands in Utah are valued at $2,820 per acre, an increase of 4.8 percent from last year. Irrigated cropland was valued at $5,200 per acre, up 4 percent from 2012 while non-irrigated cropland was valued at an average of $1,100 per acre, a rise of 6.8 percent from the year before, according to a report released Friday by the Utah Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Pasture land in Utah was valued at an average of $950 per acre, an increase of 3.3 percent from last year.

Regional changes in the average value of farm real estate ranged from a 23.1 percent increase in the Northern Plains region to no change in the Southeast region. The highest farm real estate values were in the Midwest's Cornbelt region at $6,400 per acre. The Mountain West region had the lowest farm real estate value at $1,020 per acre.