Resources

What are you working on?

Guides, data pages and tools, sorted by the job in front of you. Each figure on these pages names its source and date.

Setting rent

Putting a number on cash rent for your ground, and checking it against the county.

Setting rent on farm ground
What the rent number should be for your acres, and what moves it up or down.
Cash rent by state
USDA NASS county cash-rent averages for non-irrigated cropland, state by state.
Pasture rental rates
What pasture rents for, by state, from USDA NASS.
Lease Manager
Keep each lease, its rent and its renewal date in one place.
The Landlord Plan
A rent number for your parcel every year, for owners whose ground someone else farms.

For heirs and families deciding what to do with farm ground they now own.

Farm estate planning
An heir's first three questions about inherited farmland.
Farm succession planning
The numbers to put on the table before the family talks.
How much is an acre of land worth?
What sets a farmland value, and where the public figures come from.
For heirs and families
How Scout reads inherited ground, side by side, before anyone decides.

Reading a parcel before you make an offer.

How much is an acre of land worth?
What sets a farmland value, and where the public figures come from.
Soil productivity index
The 0 to 100 soil formula, published with its weights.
USDA Web Soil Survey
Pull the government soil map for a field, step by step.
Wetlands on your land
How to tell if mapped wetlands touch a parcel, and what that limits.
Hydric soils
What a hydric rating means for drainage and use.
What is a plat map?
Plat map, parcel map and survey: which one answers which question.
For buyers
What Scout reads on a parcel you are thinking of buying.

When a lease is up, or a solar or wind letter lands in the mailbox.

Farmland cash-rent lease agreement
What a written cash-rent lease must say.
Solar leasing guide
How farmland solar leases work, for the owner reading an offer.
Solar lease rates by state
Published solar lease ranges, state by state.
Wind turbine lease rates
How wind leases pay landowners, and what to check.
Why your land may not get a solar lease
Grid distance, slope and size: the reasons a developer passes.
The 2025 energy law and your farmland
What the tax credit changes mean for solar offers.
Iowa wind lease repowering
Why new wind builds slowed, and what repowering means for a lease.

USDA programs, Ohio CAUV and what solar does to property tax.

What is CRP?
The Conservation Reserve Program, and where enrollment stands.
CRP payment rates data
Historical CRP payments by state and county, from USDA FSA.
USDA Programs
Which USDA programs a parcel may qualify for.
Ohio CAUV
Enrollment versus value, and what solar does to it.
CAUV solar recoupment in Ohio
The recoupment tax when CAUV ground goes to solar.
Indiana solar farm property tax
How the assessment changes under the panels.

Public figures by state and county, each with its source and date.

Farmland by state
State and county farmland pages: soils, crops, rent and parcel context.
Cash rent by state
USDA NASS county cash-rent averages, state by state.
States with limited cash-rent data
Where NASS reports few counties, grouped on one page.
What crops grow in Ohio?
Ohio crop acres from USDA NASS.
What crops grow in Indiana?
Indiana crop acres from USDA NASS.
What farmland produces
Yields and income per acre, from public data.
Coverage
Where Scout has parcel maps, and where you outline your field.