Project Report
Project Lead/Researchers:
Wendong Zhang, assistant professor, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Business at Cornell University, formerly with Iowa State University
Jingyi Tong, PhD student, Economics/Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)
The Leopold Center has helped support a number of updates to the 40-year Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey series (1982-present), including the survey taken in July 2022, reported in August 2023, which added questions on the use of working land and edge-of-field conservation practices.
The survey, which carries out an Iowa legislative mandate, represents a nationally unique study that has been conducted every five years since the 1980s to better understand agricultural land ownership, tenure and transfer. The surveys generally provide data on many aspects of land ownership, tenure, acquisition, succession and characteristics of landowners, including non-operator landowners, farmland rental agreements and the financing of farmland, topics that are of perennial interest to policymakers, landowners, producers and researchers.
Section 7 of the 2023 report covers farmers responses to questions about conservation, conservation practices and easement programs, including interest in carbon payment programs. Among the relevant fundings summarized by the authors:
- Government conservation programs remain popular among landowners, with the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) still the most extensively used.
- Land held in joint tenancy, trusts or LLCs, and land owned by landowners 65 years or older, was more likely to be enrolled in government conservation programs.
- No-till and cover crops were used on 30% and 7%, respectively, on Iowa farmland in 2022, an increase from 27% and 4% in 2017.
- Grassed waterways and reduced tillage are popular for landowners to adopt in Iowa.
- Buffer strips were utilized by 3 percent of landowners across 2017 to 2022.
- Saturated buffer, bioreactors and nutrient removal wetlands had less than one percent adoption in 2022.
- Overall, landowners show a strong belief in the effectiveness of no-till and cover crops in reducing water pollution.
- A sizable portion of Iowa landowners do not view cost-share payments as the main driver for conservation adoption.
- Wind easements are the most common type of easement granted in Iowa.
- Few owners have already enrolled in or are considering participating in carbon credit programs, and most are either not interested or have never heard of them.
Overall in 2022, researchers found that about 66 percent of Iowa farmland was owned by people over 65. This was six percent higher than in 2017, and more than twice the level in 1982. About 84 percent of the land was reported to be held without debt, and the trend towards cash rental arrangements continues to increase.
Find more information, including a video of a press conference about the 2023 Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey results, at: https://www.card.iastate.edu/farmland/ownership/