Tenure Characteristics of Illinois Farmland

Data from the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management (FBFM) Association provides insights into leasing arrangements in Illinois. Table 1 contains data summarized from Illinois grain farms enrolled in FBFM. These farms receive most of their farming income from grain operations and farm at least 500 acres. Although this data is representative of commercial grain farms in Illinois, it is not a statistical sample of all commercial grain farms in the state. For the year 2023, farm operators enrolled in FBFM owned 24 percent of the land they farmed, crop shared 27 percent, and cash rented 48 percent (Table 1). For crop share arrangements, farmers and landowners share in the revenue and expenses associated with farming. For cash rent arrangements, farmers pay landowners a cash payment and receive all the revenue and pay all the operating expenses from farming the land. Variable cash rent leases are classified as land cash rented in this analysis. There has been a small but continual shift in types of leases from crop share leases to cash rent leases. From 2019 to 2023, the amount of land crop shared decreased from 32 percent to 27 percent while the amount of land cash rented increased from 45 percent to 48 percent. While there is more land cash rented then crop shared, there is still a significant amount of farmland leased under a crop share arrangement. The last year where a larger amount of the farmland was crop shared compared to cash rented was in 2006. Since then, there has been more land cash rented than crop shared. The amount of land leased under a crop share or cash rent basis varies by geographic region in the state. For example, in 2023, farmers in northern Illinois cash rented 66 percent of their land and crop shared 16 percent while central Illinois farmers cash rented 48 percent and crop shared 37 percent. Farmers in the southern part of the state cash rented 42 percent of their land and crop shared 31 percent.