Minnesota cropland values slip as grain prices fall

Minnesota farmland prices fell 5.5 percent during the first nine months of 2015, according to a University of Minnesota analysis.

Low prices for corn and soybeans have reduced farmer profits and cut into land sales and there's no sign of an economic turnaround in agriculture, university professor and extension economist Bill Lazarus said.

"Commodity markets, there's not a lot of light at the end of the tunnel yet, but you never know what might happen depending on weather next year and those kinds of factors," he said.

The average price of farmland in the state fell to about $4,600 an acre last year. The peak in the land market came in 2013 at just over $5,000 an acre.

There are wide variations across the state, with some regions seeing land prices increase last year. That happened in northwest Minnesota, where values went up about 8 percent. The sharpest decline came in the west central part of the state, where land prices fell nearly 13 percent.