Cropland Rental Rates for Minnesota Counties

Prepared by: Coryn Davidson, Pauline Van Nurden, Rann Loppnow, and Dale Nordquist – Center for Farm Financial Management, University of Minnesota

Updated 8/2026

This publication provides a historical perspective on rental rates paid by a group of Minnesota farmers and trends in those rental rates over the past five years. This information is meant as a guide and starting point. The information and data are not meant to establish, determine, set, fix, or even hint at what actual rents should be. It is simply a reporting of historical land rental rates in Minnesota.

Historical rental data is included for the years 2021 through 2025. Weighted average rental rates are listed by county for each year. The 2025 data also includes the median cash rent and the 10th and 90th percentile range, explained under “data results”.

There is really no way to statistically project future rental rates. Keep in mind the numbers listed are weighted averages. That means there are rents both above and below the numbers listed. Again, these numbers are merely a starting point.

Also included is the 2026 county rental data gathered by the USDA National Ag Statistical Service (NASS) in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The USDA/NASS data is collected by a mail-out survey. The 2026 results were released in August 2026. This document includes the NASS data available at the time of writing.

The land rental data shown in the data tables is extracted from FINBIN, a database of farm record summaries of over 2,000 Minnesota farms. The farmers participate in the Minnesota State College Farm Business Management program as well as the Southwest Minnesota Farm Business Management Association.

The rental rates are based on analysis of the financial records of participating farmers and represent the actual rents paid for the years listed.

The FINBIN database includes enterprise-level income and expenses for thousands of acres of Minnesota farmland. To compile this report, rental rates are extracted for cash rented land. All row crop acres, small grain acres, canning crop acres, etc., are included in the data analysis. Not included in the analysis are acres allocated to pasture, aftermath grazing, hay and haylage acres, CRP acres, fallow, and prevented planted acres. All normal farming practices for the regions were included in the analysis. The USDA/NASS numbers are for row crops on non-irrigated land only.

Data is organized by county. Counties with a minimum of 10 farms with cash rented acreage are included. If a given county does not have rent data listed for 2020-2024, there were not enough farms reporting data. Counties with only partial FINBIN data for 2021-2025 and a USDA/NASS number have been included because they now meet the 10 farm minimum criteria. Counties with only a USDA/NASS number have less than 10 farmers reporting FINBIN data.

The following two pages show the county and USDA/NASS land rental data arranged by region consistent with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics Service districts.

The 2021-2025 “Average” data columns list historical rent data by county for those years. The land rental data listed is a weighted average of all the farms reporting land rent for a specific county and year.

The 2025 crop year columns list the weighted average rental rate as well as the median or 50th percentile. Half of the rental rates for the county were less than this median amount and half were greater than this amount. In addition, the 10th and 90th percentile are included to reflect the range of cash rents. Ten percent of the farmers paid a rental rate less than or equal to the 10th percentile. Similarly, ten percent of the farmers paid a rental rate greater than or equal to the 90th percentile column. Note, this may reflect rates paid by a very small number of farmers.

The 2026 USDA/NASS data for each county is included for purposes of comparison. The numbers are for non-irrigated farmland only.

Following is a table showing the total percent change in land rental rates for the five years from 2021 through and including 2025, and the one-year change from 2024 to 2025. These changes are based on weighted averages to compensate for differences in acres and rental rates from the various counties in each region. The land rental numbers used to calculate the percent change values are also from the FINBIN database. Also included is a state-wide percent change.

In all available regions, the 5-year percent change is positive with relatively large percentage increases. This means rates have now increased above their 2021 levels. This is mainly driven by land rental rate increases in 2021 and 2022. The 5-year trend prior to this recent increase had been nearly unchanged to slightly negative.

The 2024-2025 annual change data show a small increase in majority of the regions with available data. Notably, the increase in rental rates from 2024 to 2025 contrasts with the downward trend observed in the previous year. Note: The East Central and North Central region has no available data from FINBIN.

The land rental rates listed in the data tables are not meant to predict future land rental rates. They are simply a historical listing of land rental data from the years 2021-2025 as reported in FINBIN. 

Keep in mind these rental rates include both family and unrelated party land rental contracts, as well as long-term rental contracts. Rental rates between family members can be lower than those between unrelated parties. Long-term rental contracts generally do not change dramatically during the length of the contract and therefore may affect the weighted average numbers used in the data calculations. Please note the rental rates shown here may not align with rents being paid for new land coming on the market.

Those who wish to search FINBIN for land rental data specific to a county or region (assuming there are enough farmers reporting rental rate values), as well as other farm data, can do so by going to the FINBIN website. Once there, click on the green bar on the left side of the page titled “Crop”. A page will appear giving you choices. Select the crop you want under Crop Enterprise. Next, select county or region under Location. Under Sort By you can search by selecting different years. Make sure “crop tenure type” under Filters shows “cash rent”. Click Generate Report and your data will appear if there are a sufficient number of farms reporting data.