What is your farmland worth today? With the rapid changes in farmland over the past couple of years, there’s a good chance you don’t have an accurate estimate. That’s a challenge if you’re trying to plan for the future, whether you’re considering buying additional acres, selling, or financing other purchases.
Lenders working with farmers face related frustrations. The loan qualification process can take longer than either party would like, in part because of how backlogged many appraisers currently are.
So what’s the solution? Part of it is Farmland Intel, the latest tool from Growers Edge. Farmland Intel calculates real-time property values based on a wide swath of data, including…
- Tillable acres
- Soil ratings.
- Soil erosion data.
- Past crop data.
- Local sale data.
… and more.
Let’s take a look at how you can use Farmland Intel to better strategize as a farmer or ag lender.
Farmland Intel Values vs. Real-World Sales: April 2025
The first question on your mind is likely about accuracy: just how reliable is the data in Farmland Intel? To give you an idea, we looked at 50 property sales from April 2025. We compared the actual sale price with the value estimated by Farmland Intel the day before the sale.
Farmland Intel’s assessments ranged from 26.2 percent below the actual sale price to 25.8 percent above (Figure 1). Keep in mind that these sales happened in April 2025, during a time of unusual volatility in tariff policy, and that day-to-day policy changes may have impacted properties’ sale prices.
Figure 1: Farmland sales vs. Farmland Intel valuations by percentage, April 2025
Another way of thinking about this data: Farmland Intel values fell within a 50 percent band of variance – meaning the values Farmland Intel estimated landed within a range between 25 percent above actual sale price and 25 percent below that price.
We’ve plotted that visualization in Figure 2, grouping data by state.
Figure 2: Percent difference, Farmland Intel prices vs. actual sale prices, April 2025
So how does this compare with the values you’d get from an accredited appraiser?
Research conducted in 2024 looked at 54 appraisal reports, carried out by nine Certified General Appraisers (CGAs) for three farms in Iowa at two points in time (2019 and 2020). The goal was to determine how much appraised values varied, given the strict norms and regulations that govern how CGAs operate.
The study found that appraised farmland values can differ by as much as 20 percent of the average appraised values.
Just as interesting: the research also uncovered “non-trivial” discrepancies in basic facts (tillable acres, productivity indexes, etc.) the CGAs took into account.
To sum up: Farmland Intel values fall within +/- 25 percent of sale price. Appraised values (regardless of actual sale price) can vary by as much as 20 percent.
(Note: we’d love to compare Farmland Intel values to appraised values. If you’re willing to share a recent appraisal for your land, please reach out.)
Now let’s take a look at how this data can be useful to farmers and ag lenders.
Farmland Intel vs. Farmland Appraisal
As of today, if you’re buying or selling farmland with a mortgage, you’ll need an appraisal from a human appraiser.
But what if you’re a farmer sketching loose plans for the future? Or doing back-of-the envelope calculations about whether you’ll be able to afford a new tractor next year?
What if you’re an ag lender looking for ways to build relationships by, say, identifying whose properties have increased in value and so might have room to increase their operating loan this fall?
In those cases, it would be silly to hire an appraiser – but still valuable to know an estimated value of specific parcels of farmland. That’s where Farmland Intel can help. The table below highlights key differences between Farmland Intel and human appraisers.
| Appraiser | Farmland Intel | |
| Cost | Expensive
($1,000 – $5,000, depending on the size, location, and complexity of the property and the type of appraisal) |
Free |
| Speed | Slow
(30 – 90 days, depending on the appraiser’s workload and the land’s complexity) |
Fast
(You can view your land valuation report within seconds) |
| Accuracy | High
(within 20% of what other appraisers would find) |
Moderate
(within 25% of actual sale prices) |
| Utility | Valid for legal and financial purposes
(buying or selling land, deeding land, etc.) |
Useful to guide personal financial planning |
Professional appraisal and Farmland Intel aren’t the only two options for estimating land’s value, of course.
You could buy a subscription to a service similar to Farmland Intel, but many are hundreds of dollars per month. In some cases, these high costs come with data that’s less accurate than what you’ll find in Farmland Intel.
You could also call the county’s assessor’s office and ask for information on recent sales of comparable land, but they won’t be able to offer anything specific to the current market value of a given property. The only cost here is time, but getting the information you need can take days or weeks, depending on who you talk to and how busy they are.
Then again, if you know the right people (real estate agents and loan officers, often), you may be able to glean the information you want about a property’s value – more or less. Again, though, this can be a time-intensive process and isn’t very scalable (which is an issue for ag lenders).
Farmland Intel makes it possible to get the data you need, right now, without huge barriers. And it’s just one of many fintech tools we’re making available for the ag community.
Get Your Free Land Valuation Report Today
Whether you’re a landowner or lender, you’re no doubt curious about the value of either your property or of a property of some of your borrowers. So go ahead: look up your land in Farmland Intel.
When you do, you’ll get a free land valuation report that includes…
- Land identification data (state, county, township, total acreage, and land unit IDs).
- Tillable acres.
- Estimated value per acre (including value range).
- Estimated value per tillable acre.
- Comparable sales.
- A satellite and topography map of the property.
Once you look up your property, we’d love to hear what you think. Ultimately, as we refine Farmland Intel, we plan to make it as good as a human appraiser. Drop us a line to share your thoughts.