Farmland prices fall in parts of Midwest, Southeast; price rises in Central Plains slow down

The rise of agricultural land prices in the U.S. farm belt slowed considerably or even reversed in the first quarter of the year. Non-irrigated farmland in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's region was up 3.4 percent, much less than the 7.7 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2012. The  St. Louis bank reported that land values in parts of the Midwest and Southeast regions fell an average of 2.3 percent from 2012 to 2013.

Even though numbers are down, they had been at record levels over the past year, rising a total of 19.3 percent, but signs of a slowdown are emerging, reports Mark Peters for The Wall Street Journal: "The benchmark corn contract has fallen more than 20 percent from records set last summer as federal forecasters predict a record corn crop this autumn," and farmers' costs are increasing.

Nathan Kauffman, an economist with the Kansas City bank, said it will take a few quarters to determine whether the first quarter's "modest" slowdown marks a fundamental shift in the farmland market or a short-term ebb, reports Peters. We wrote about the rising price of farmland and the fear of a crash here. (Wall Street Journal graphic)