Farm Land Evaluation Tool

Land is one of the most important assets to a farming operation. This tool provides everything you need to know about farm land parcels and local market trends in order to make the best decision around buying, selling, and financing land.

Our surveys of farmers tell us that most farm land transactions happen privately, without a public listing. In this tool, you can find detailed information for nearly every farm parcel in the United States, regardless of listing status. Currently we do not publish land listings.

Currently, there is limited access. However new spots are opening up every week! If you would like to get early access, sign up here. 

Watch your email for news about new features and expanded access in the coming months!

FBN created this tool to make it easy for all farmers to access trustworthy farm land insights. We limit the number of parcels to aid in our mission of providing this data for farmers and not other audience sets.

FBN members can download 3 reports (with a maximum of 4 parcels per report) every week. The week starts from Monday and ends on Sunday.

We currently have coverage in the lower 48 states.

This tool has a database of over 6 million agricultural parcels. We gather from a wide range of public data sources including local, state and federal government agencies, universities and private entities. We review the data to make sure that only the most relevant data is included 

Parcels

Boundaries shown in the tool refer to tax parcel boundaries. They are sourced from county assessor records. For each parcel, we provide the boundary and the parcel identification (parcel ID), also commonly known as Assessor Parcel Number (APN) or property identification number (PIN). Parcels records are usually updated on an annual or semi-annual basis. How often parcel boundaries are updated will vary by county. 

Land Use & Cropping History

This tool shows historical land use and cropping patterns derived from the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) published by United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS). The CDL is a crop-specific land cover data layer created annually using  moderate resolution satellite imagery. Land use and cropping history data are updated annually on Farmland Guide in the first quarter of each calendar year when the USDA makes this data available.  

Soil 

We obtain soil information from the United States Department of Agriculture- Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) and National Cooperative Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO).

We show nation-wide productivity indices from SSURGO and state-specific soil productivity indices if those are available: 

In Illinois we use the Illinois Soil Productivity Index (ILPI) for optimal management. Read more about ILPI and how it relates to yield and land values. Soil types with ILPI ranging from 133-147 are in Class A, from 117-132 are in Class B, and from 100-116 are in Class C.

In Iowa, soil productivity is measured by the Iowa C Suitability Rating (CSR2) which ranges from 0 to 100. 

In all other states, soil productivity indices are determined by the overall National Commodity Crop Productivity Index (NCCPI) developed by the USDA-NRCS. 

Soil survey information in Farmland Guide is updated when new releases are published by the USDA-NRCS, typically every 1-2 years.

Terrain

The report presents farmland slope, elevation and terrain wetness index (estimating the propensity for water accumulation) using data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). 

Comparison of farmland to its county only considers cropland and not other land types.

This tool was created to serve farmers across the country with detailed parcel-level analytics. 

In order to provide information about 400 million+ acres, we incorporate many datasets derived from satellite imagery. For example, the USDA Cropland Data Layer used satellite imagery to estimate annually which areas produce what type of crops. However, errors may occur leading, for example, to one area of a field being classified as not planted when it actually was.  

We always recommend supporting your analysis and research with on-the-ground information.

You can reach us at explore-finance@farmersbusinessnetwork.com and share your feedback!

This tool is free to use. By being an FBN member, you will receive bonus data points such as an extended cropping history, plantable acres and comparisons between the farmland with the county.

Select the parcels that you are interested in and click on “View Details”. On the following page, you will see a button to “Request Report”. Once you click on that, you will see all the PDF reports available to either view or download. 

We do our best to provide you with all the data and insights that we can for the parcels that you have selected. Even though we use a variety of sources, sometimes there are cases where data is not available for each parcel. 

By accessing this report and the information therein, you agree that the information in this report is provided for your individual informational use only, and may not be disclosed, reproduced, summarized, distributed, excerpted, or used for any reason other than for research purposes to aid in your potential purchase, sale, or rental of property. Any unauthorized use of this report or its information is prohibited. Information is reliable but not guaranteed, may be incomplete, and should be independently verified. Farmer’s Business Network, Inc. and its subsidiaries are not responsible for the accuracy of this information.