Farmland analysis
Illinois Farmland Analysis
Soil quality, USDA cash-rent benchmarks, and solar and wind income, with CRP's enrollment status, for any Illinois parcel, free, from 6 federal data sources.
AgriTerra Scout is a free tool for analyzing Illinois farmland. Search an address or outline a parcel on the map and Scout reads its soil capability, USDA county cash-rent benchmarks, modeled solar and wind income, water and flood exposure, and conservation-program eligibility, all from 6 federal data sources, with the source and date on every number.
Coverage in Illinois
Free in Illinois: outline your field on the map, and Scout reads its soil, cash rent, water, flood, and wetlands and shows three uses for those acres side by side (farming it, cash rent, and a solar or wind lease, with CRP shown as paused while new enrollment is). Ohio and Indiana only for now: parcel maps you tap to select. Want one email when your county's parcel maps go live?
Got it. We'll email you once, when your county's parcel maps go live.
What Scout shows you in Illinois
- Soil capability: NRCS SSURGO soil class, drainage, and productivity for the parcel. See how to read a soil survey and the soil productivity index.
- Cash rent: the USDA NASS county cash-rent average (the published figure), with a soil-adjusted range AgriTerra models from the parcel's soils.
- Solar & wind income: modeled from NREL PVWatts for solar and AgriTerra wind resource buckets over NREL/WINDExchange 100 m wind maps, as planning bands rather than developer offers. See the solar leasing guide and wind leasing guide.
- CRP: whether the soil data flags acres as likely eligible, and the program's status: new CRP enrollment is paused, so Scout shows no CRP rate. See how CRP works and CRP rates by state.
- Water & flood: USGS water data and the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer.
- Wetlands: USFWS National Wetlands Inventory classifications. See wetlands on your land and hydric soils.
Illinois farmland at a glance
Central Illinois sits on some of the flattest, most uniformly productive prairie soil anywhere, which pushes both farm returns and cash rents to the top of the national range. Wind development is heavy across the central and eastern counties, so many Illinois owners are weighing a lease against continued row-crop income.
Illinois farms grow corn and soybeans, and its cropland is among the highest cropland values and cash rents in the Midwest. Because that value swings by county and soil, Scout reports the USDA benchmark for the exact parcel you look at rather than a statewide average. See what farmland produces and what it earns.
Analyzing a Illinois parcel
Pre-loaded parcel boundaries are live in Ohio and Indiana first; in Illinois you outline the parcel on the map with the draw tool (a partial slice of a larger field works too) and every federal data layer still reads for that exact footprint.
Once the parcel is set, Scout pulls every layer in parallel and lays the results out as a plain-language comparison (keep farming, cash-rent, enroll in CRP, or lease for solar or wind), each with a per-acre figure and the source behind it (CRP shows its status instead while new enrollment is paused). See the land-use optimizer for how the ranking works, check the Illinois cash rent county table, compare a developer offer with the farm vs. solar vs. CRP tool, or farmland analysis in other states.
Evaluate Illinois land for a living?
Work with landowners? Land Scout Pro opens Q1 2027 at $99 a month at launch, with white-label reports, client folders, and a multi-parcel portfolio view. Join the Pro waitlist.
Illinois farmland: frequently asked questions
- Does AgriTerra work for Illinois farmland?
- Yes. The federal data layers behind Scout (USDA soils and cash rent, NREL solar and wind, FEMA flood, USGS water, USFWS wetlands) are nationwide, so any Illinois parcel can be analyzed for free. Pre-loaded parcel boundaries are live in Ohio and Indiana first; in Illinois you outline the parcel on the map with the draw tool (a partial slice of a larger field works too) and every federal data layer still reads for that exact footprint.
- What is Illinois farmland worth?
- Illinois cropland is among the highest cropland values and cash rents in the Midwest. Rather than quote a single statewide figure, Scout reports the USDA NASS cash-rent average for the county of the specific parcel you look at, the one figure NASS publishes, beside a soil-adjusted range that AgriTerra models from that parcel's soils, because value in Illinois varies far more by county and soil than any state average captures.
- What grows on Illinois farmland?
- Illinois farms grow corn and soybeans. Central Illinois sits on some of the flattest, most uniformly productive prairie soil anywhere, which pushes both farm returns and cash rents to the top of the national range. Wind development is heavy across the central and eastern counties, so many Illinois owners are weighing a lease against continued row-crop income.
- Do I need an account to analyze a Illinois parcel?
- No. You can search a Illinois address, pick the parcel, and see soil and cash rent with no account. Running the solar, wind, and CRP comparison is free with a free account, 3 a month. An account or purchase only comes up for the full $89 Decision Report.
County average vs. a real parcel
The Illinois state average is not your number.
Illinois state average, 2026
$261/ac
USDA NASS, non-irrigated cropland
Your parcel
Run your own parcel to see the gap. Every Illinois parcel reads differently on soil, drainage, and rotation.
Every parcel-scale figure is a Scout free read; see how we get our numbers. The state average anchor is the USDA NASS 2026 survey for non-irrigated cropland.
See what your Illinois acres could earn.
Run the free analysis on any Illinois parcel: soil, cash rent, and the solar/wind/CRP comparison, each with its source, in under a minute.
Free to start. The full Decision Report is $89.