Price of Farmland Rises in Midwest
The price of farmland across the Corn Belt has risen as high as 13 percent in 2010.

"A lot of it is driven by commodity prices," said Jason Henderson, a branch manager and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in Omaha, Neb. "The Russian drought started to raise concerns about global crop supplies and we saw commodity prices begin to rise and we saw farmland values rise with commodity prices."

Iowa State University Farm economist Michael Duffy said prices are being pushed upward by low interest rates and high commodity prices. "People are asking themselves, 'where am I going to put my money' and farmland looks as good as anything and as a long-term investment it's probably better than most," Duffy said.

Source: The Associated Press, Michael J. Crumb (12/24/2010)