Managed acres up significantly over decade

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The number of acres managed by Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers members increased substantially in 10 years.

ISPFMRA executive director Carroll Merry and immediate past president Michael Lauher unveiled the results of an industry profile survey and compared the data to a survey from a decade ago.

The survey, conducted in December and January, found slightly over 2.709 million acres under management by ISPFMRA members — representing 11.3% of the total Illinois cropland and up from over 1.059 million in 2016.

Total value of farmland under member management is $27.936 billion.

“The survey told us that we have 9,418 total properties under management, up 218% from the 4,318 that was indicated in the survey in 2016,” said Lauher, of First Mid Ag Services, Mattoon.

“That means there are about 37 properties per manager, up from 22.5 in last survey. That makes sense as we are increasing technology use in our offices. We are managing more acres with more technology and now with AI.”

According to the survey, an average of 10,582 acres are managed per manager, up from 5,489 in 2016.

Client Diversity

The survey also included a look at the diversity of clients and how that has changed in the last decade. Here are the numbers Merry presented:

• Trusts now represent 20.9% of clients compared to 31% in 2016.

• Individual clients declined from 38% 10 years ago to 20.9% in the latest survey.

• Family corporations increased from 8.6% in 2016 to now 14%.

• Limited partnerships is at 12.8%.

• Multiple ownership represents 9.3% compared to 8.6% a decade ago.

• Non-family corporations increased from 2.6% in 2016 to 8.1% today.

• Rounding out the categories are partnerships, 5.1%; creditor or receivership, 4.7%; and other, 4.2%.

The limited partnerships, partnerships, creditor or receiverships and other categories were not specified in the 2016 survey.

Appraisal Services

Thirty percent of the ISPFMRA membership are appraisers, similar to the 2016 results.

Each office that responded had an average of 1.7 appraisers on staff. Each appraiser did on average 60 appraisals in a year.

Total valuations of properties that were appraised was over $6 billion.

Of the respondents, 92.5% indicated they were appraising farmland and 29.9% said they’re also doing commercial appraisals.

Crops

“The crops under management in Illinois reflected more corn and soybean acres in 2025 compared to 10 years ago,” Merry said.

The breakdown of crop acres under ISPFMRA member management, with the first number being 2025 and the second number from 10 years ago, are:

• Corn — 1,531,838; 565,804.

• Soybeans — 1,273,056; 49,213.

• Wheat — 70,998; 5,151.

• Alfalfa — 4,253; 688.

• Pasture — 5,106; 12,177.

• Other — 2,892; 26,395.

“Of course, some of this comes from the fact that if you have that many more farms, that many more acres, then obviously those numbers would be up that much,” Merry said.

Tillage Practices

“There’s been a shift over the last decade toward conservation tillage,” Lauher noted.

Conventional tillage declined from 34.4% in 2016 to 27% on ISPFMRA member managed farmland.

Mulch tillage dropped from 39.7% 10 years ago to 31% in the newest survey. Ridge tillage is now at 7.3% compared to 5% 10 years earlier.

No-till increased from 19.4% in 2016 to 21.8% today, and other, including strip-till, is now at 12.7% compared to 1.4% a decade ago.

Leases

Crop shares were used in 43.5% of the leases in 2025 and 34.7% in 2016. Fixed cash rent represented 22.4% of the leases, down from 25.7% a decade ago.

Variable cash rent leases in managed lands were 27.9% in 2025 and 30.1% in 2016. Custom leases increased over 10 years from 5.6% to 9%.

Other — including custom, bushels and direct — leases are also up from 3.9% to 6.3% over the decade.

“The crop share number surprised me. I anticipated crop shares to go down just because, in general, we’re seeing more cash rents,” Lauher said.

“But after thinking about it a little bit longer, the cash rents are probably more common with non-professional managed farms. People who are away from the farms find it a lot easier to deal with cash rents. Whereas, for professionally-managed ground, the owners are able to take advantage of our knowledge and our ability to added value to the production. So, that number increased.”