Farmland analysis
Illinois Farmland Analysis
Soil quality, USDA cash-rent benchmarks, and solar, wind, and CRP income 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.
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: USDA NASS county cash-rent benchmarks (low / midpoint / high).
- 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: USDA FSA conservation rental rates on acres the soil data flags as likely eligible. 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. 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?
Lenders, farm managers, appraisers and land agents working Illinois ground use Land Scout Pro for white-label reports under their own brand, client folders, and a multi-parcel portfolio view across every parcel they handle.
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 USDA NASS county cash-rent benchmarks for the specific parcel you look at: the low, midpoint, and high for that county, 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.
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.