American Farmland Owner Podcast

A 1,020-acre, two-state farm up for sale has an unusual story: it’s the only piece of Illinois that sits west of the Mississippi River, created when the river changed course in the mid-1800s and separated Kaskaskia Island from the rest of the state. On this island sits a 150-year family farm, now up for sale, with 100% of proceeds benefiting three nonprofits, two of which focus on helping children. The family trust has asked that the nonprofits themselves remain anonymous, but the philanthropic angle adds another layer to the sale: it’s not just a transfer of farmland, but a way to turn the value of a historic family asset into lasting support for charitable causes.

Acres Founder & CEO Carter Malloy argues that land value hinges on data landowners rarely see: zoning, infrastructure, and who's quietly buying nearby parcels through layered LLCs. Acres traces those LLCs back to parent companies (homebuilders, energy firms, data-center developers) and just launched Homebuilder Market Intelligence, covering 3,000+ counties and 60 million+ land transactions. A neighbor's quiet sale to an institutional buyer can change the value of adjacent land by multiples, making that kind of data as important as the land itself.

A two-state, 1,477.5-acre farm sale just closed for $22.45 million, and it wasn't luck. Geswein Farm & Land Realty's Johnny Klemme explains how branding an Illinois-Indiana portfolio as one regional event, pairing a hybrid live/online auction, and spotlighting decades of tenant stewardship drove nearly 800 bids and turned a multi-generational family farm into the sale everyone was watching.

Risk management executive Dustin Carlson says the once-controversial 831(b) tax provision is drawing fresh interest from farmland owners as uninsured risks grow and the contribution limit rises to roughly $2.9 million in 2026. Created in 1986 to help businesses fund risks the open market wouldn't cover, Carlson argues the tool is regaining relevance as insurance policies add exclusions rather than coverage.

Lou Jewell argues land deals need a different approach than house sales, using a highest-and-best-use example to show how the same tract's value shifts depending on its use (row crops, timber, development). He also discusses the NC land disclosure form he helped develop over roughly a decade, covering gaps (boundary and mineral-rights issues) that standard residential forms miss.

Kenny Avery, CEO of Advanced Agrilytics and former Monsanto executive, told American Farmland Owner that more landowners are discovering Section 180 of the tax code, which lets farmland owners deduct the value of excess residual soil fertility built up from years of fertilizer and lime applications. Advanced Agrilytics calculates the deduction field by field using soil samples compared against regional baseline fertility levels, then spreads the benefit over a four-to-five-year depletion schedule. The opportunity can be especially valuable for land-holding entities that lease to a separate operating company and otherwise have few deductions of their own.

Montanabeekeeper and former American Beekeeping Federation president Patty Sundbergsays solving the beekeeping industry's colony losses, which topped 62% amongcommercial beekeepers between mid-2024 and early 2025, will require help fromthe rest of agriculture. She's calling for pollinator strips, better roadsidemanagement, and use of public lands to give bees the forage they need tosurvive.

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are reshaping howAmericans eat, and Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute's Jeremy Woodrow sees anopening for pollock, a high-protein, low-calorie whitefish long hidden in fishsticks and fast food. With three billion pounds harvested annually and modernfreezing technology improving quality, the industry is betting pollock couldbecome a go-to protein source, though Woodrow says demand from the GLP-1 trendis still in its early stages.

Watts & Associates economist Kyle Jore says crop insurance may become even more important as farm profitability remains under pressure and some producers consider selling land or giving up rented acres. Jore believes access to capital, farmland values, and the effectiveness of newer insurance products will play a key role in agriculture's financial stability in the years ahead.

Macotera Ag Group founder Scott Bozzo says California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) could ultimately remove 500,000 to 1 million acres from production as farmers adapt to limited groundwater supplies. With California having roughly 8.2 million irrigated acres, some growers are already leaving fields unplanted, reducing orchard development, or using land for groundwater recharge to stay within water budgets.