Announcements

We’re proud to announce that we have once again maintained full conformance with the Leading Harvest Farmland Management Standard (LH FMS) — marking our fourth consecutive year of certification, validating our commitment to a mission that goes beyond the balance sheet.

This year’s recertification was the result of a rigorous audit process, but for us, it was also a welcome opportunity for independent validation. Auditors Matt Armstrong and Linnea Abel of Averum thoroughly reviewed our managed operations in the Lake States and Corn Belt regions. They not only examined our documented practices but also spoke with our team, our valued farm operators, and even a local partner, Senior Conservation Technician Brian Smetana.

The audit’s findings confirmed that our on-the-ground work matches our core philosophy with a report of zero major or minor non-conformances. For our stakeholders, this result is assurance that we are committed to environmental stewardship and that our practices are continuously improving to benefit the farms we are entrusted to manage.

Learn more from our full audit report.

Trade Policy and Farmland Investment in 2025

Trade policy continues to dominate economic discussions, especially in sectors tied to global markets. For U.S. farmland investment companies and the agricultural industry, international trade policy plays a critical role in shaping market dynamics, commodity prices, and long-term investment strategies.

While recent policy changes have created short-term volatility, broader agricultural trade trends have been shifting over the last 5 to 10 years. Historically, the U.S. maintained a strong agricultural trade surplus – as seen in the chart below – but that changed in 2019 when the country recorded its first agriculture trade deficit in nearly 60 years.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily reversed this trend, the trade deficit in agriculture persisted into 2023. According to the USDA Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS), the shift is driven by slowing export demand and rising agricultural imports.

Why Is the U.S. Agricultural Trade Balance Changing?

The USDA-ERS attributes the decline in agricultural exports to a strong U.S. dollar, increased global competition, and new trade barriers and tariffs. On the import side, a strong domestic economy has boosted demand for high-value agricultural products, such as:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Off-season produce
• Alcoholic beverages
• Tropical and horticultural goods

These products are either unavailable domestically or are imported due to quality and seasonality advantages. USDA data in the chart below shows a consistent increase in imports of horticultural and tropical products, supporting this trend.

How Farmland Investment Firms Manage Trade Risk

For companies like US Agriculture, LLC, risks associated with shifting trade dynamics can be mitigated through diversified farmland investment portfolios. Diversification by crop type, geographic location, and end-user market can help hedge against volatility driven by trade policy changes.

Export-Heavy Commodities at Greater Risk

Certain U.S. crops—particularly oilseeds and food grains—are highly reliant on export markets, making their prices sensitive to tariff changes and trade restrictions.

In contrast, dairy products are mostly consumed domestically, with only around 18% exported. While tariffs may impact milk prices, the effect is likely to be smaller than for more export-dependent commodities. Moreover, if grain prices fall due to reduced export demand, dairy farmers should benefit from lower feed costs, helping stabilize incomes and land values in dairy-centric farmland regions.

Innovation and Specialty Crops

Research and development that leads to innovation can also help to mitigate the effect of changes in trade policy. In the specialty crop sector, particularly fresh fruit, research into new varieties can open new marketing windows, increase yields, and/or enhance product quality, all of which help to overcome the effect of tariffs by offering a differentiated product.

Crops like table grapes and blueberries are prime examples, as recent innovations in these crops have extended growing seasons, improved yields, and helped U.S. growers access unique export windows. Agricultural investment companies that capitalize on these developments are better positioned to adapt to changing trade environments.

Building Resilient Farmland Portfolios Amid Trade Policy Shifts

The U.S. is one the largest and most productive agricultural producers in the world. Naturally, as a critical supplier to the world, it will continue to have exposure to evolving global trade policy.

However, by focusing on portfolio diversification, monitoring commodity-specific trade dependencies, and leveraging crop innovation, U.S. farmland investment managers can better navigate both short- and long-term challenges.

At USAgriculture, we remain committed to a diversified portfolio approach that helps mitigate the risks of agricultural trade disruptions, ensuring resilience and stable returns for investors.

Each February, US Agriculture, LLC (“USAg”) asks its operators and tenants to participate in a brief survey reflecting on the past year and highlighting concerns for the upcoming season. With a 90%+ response rate, 50 grower responses in 2025, the survey plays a key role in shaping our Annual Sustainability Report and helps guide how we support our farm partners.

In recent years, we’ve added a forward-looking component, asking growers to rate their level of concern—“Not a Concern,” “Low,” “Medium,” or “High”—on several critical topics:

• Climate Change
• Labor
• Foreign Competition
• Pesticide Resistance
• Pest/Disease Pressure
• Government Policy
• Profitability
• Access to Capital
• Trade Policy

These insights help us better understand how to position USAg’s resources to address what matters most to our growers. The survey results are shown below.

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What’s Keeping Growers Up at Night?

Entering the 2025 crop year, the top concerns were:

1. Trade Policy
2. Profitability
3. Government Policy

These concerns weren’t surprising. As a new Trump administration took office, proposed tariff strategies stirred anxiety in the ag sector. The March 2025 Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer echoed this sentiment, showing trade policy as the issue respondents believed would most affect their businesses over the next five years. Nearly half expected a new trade war to decrease U.S. agricultural exports; only 25% believed it wouldn’t have an effect.

In short: uncertainty around trade and profitability loomed large as growers headed into the season.

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What’s Not as Concerning?

Interestingly, climate change and access to capital ranked lowest among current concerns.

Why? Many growers see climate change as a long-term challenge—not one likely to disrupt operations in the immediate year. That said, many of our operators already implement practices that build resilience, like increasing soil organic matter with cover crops or adopting precision ag technology. At USAg, we’re also playing our part—investing in drainage systems, erosion control, and smart irrigation to improve efficiency and reduce risk.

The lower concern around access to capital likely reflects that most growers had secured financing for 2025, signaling a degree of financial stability. However, if profitability becomes increasingly stressed, we will monitor this closely in future surveys.

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Why It Matters

Understanding farmer concerns isn’t just good stewardship—it’s smart investing.

At USAg, we believe farmland investing can be a win-win for landowners and for the growers who steward the land. That starts with listening. By aligning our actions with operator feedback, we can help reduce uncertainty, invest in resilience, and create shared success for years to come.

The United States is a vast country, having the second most tillable land globally and spanning multiple climate zones.¹ As such, it can grow a wide variety of crop types. But how does U.S. crop production compare to the rest of the world?

To explore this, we examined data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ statistical database (FAOSTAT) through the lens of comparative advantage. A natural starting point in examining comparative advantage is yield—production per unit of arable land. Figure 1 presents a series of box-and-whisker plots comparing U.S. yields (indicated by the yellow dash) to those of other reporting countries.

The U.S. generally ranks within the top 25% in yield across the 13 selected crops, with particularly strong performance in potatoes, soybeans, apples, and lemons/limes. However, yield alone doesn’t capture the full picture. How does the U.S. fare in terms of production scale?

Figure 2 builds on the yield data by adding global production ranks for each crop. The U.S. ranks highly in both yield and production for several crops, including pistachios, almonds, soybeans, lettuce, apples, corn, blueberries, and potatoes.

This indicates that the U.S. is not only efficient (high yield) but it also operates at scale (high production). Still, production rank can be misleading. A country ranked third in production may appear strong, but if the top two countries account for more than 90% of total output, its relative contribution is small.

To further illustrate scale, Figure 3 shows the U.S.’s share of global production and exports. Take almonds for example: the U.S. produces roughly 53% of global supply and accounts for about 70% of exports—a strong indicator of comparative advantage. This is likely due to California’s Central Valley, a region with a Mediterranean climate ideal for almond production.² Pistachios tell a similar story.

Blueberries offer a contrasting case. While the U.S. produces about 30% of the world’s blueberries—more than any other country—it only accounts for 15% of global exports. This disparity stems from factors like perishability, seasonality, and high domestic demand.

Blueberries are typically consumed fresh and do not store well. U.S. production peaks in the summer, leaving gaps in supply during winter months. Countries like Peru have capitalized on seasonal demand and supply imbalances in the U.S. by producing blueberries during the U.S. off-season, dominating the export market. Accounting for around 50% of global consumption, the U.S. is the world’s largest blueberry consumer.³ The strong domestic market consumes much of the production in the U.S., naturally leaving very little U.S. production to be marketed for export.

As an agricultural investment firm, USAgriculture invests in farmland with characteristics that enable a competitive advantage in a specific crop or the flexibility to support diverse crop rotations. The U.S. is competitive across a broad range of crops—an achievement few countries can match. Combined with a vast infrastructure, strong property rights, a wide range of suitable climates, and stable economic conditions, we believe the United States stands out as one of the best countries in the world to build a diversified farmland portfolio.

1. Per 2022 FAOSTAT arable land data ↩︎
2. https://www.coastal.ca.gov/coastalvoices/resources/Biodiversity_Atlas_Climate_and_Topography.pdf ↩︎
3. FAOSTAT – Supply Utilization Accounts: Blueberries utilized as food ↩︎

The 2024 crop year in the Corn Belt can be described as uneven. Early corn and soybean prices provided some positive marketing opportunities, but both commodities saw prices drop 16% and 30%, respectively, throughout the crop year. 

Crop yields performed better than anticipated. The growing season began with excess moisture challenging planting, followed by dry weather in late summer. This caused many growers and agriculture investment companies to anticipate lower yields, specifically for soybeans. However, crop yields were resilient. 

Corn & Soybean National Average Yield per Acre in 2024

During harvest, growers consistently reported near or above record corn yields, while describing soybean yields as average or slightly above average. Yield data from the 2024 USDA Crop Report supported this narrative. The final national corn yield was a record 179.3 bushels per acre, and soybean yields finished at 50.7 bushels per acre, just over the USDA 10-year average yield of 50.08 bushels per acre. 

Regional Spotlight: Indiana and Illinois Yield Data

US Agriculture, LLC’s (“USAg”) managed Corn Belt properties reside in Indiana and Illinois. According to the USDA, Indiana’s 2024 corn and soybean yields were 198 and 59 bushels per acre, respectively, while Illinois were 217 and 64 bushels per acre, respectively. 

For Indiana, the USDA corn yield was the second-highest on record, while the soybean yield was approximately 3 bushels per acre above the 10-year average. 

In Illinois, the 2024 corn yield was a record, according to USDA data, while the soybean yield was approximately 3.5 bushels per acre above the 10-year average. 

USAg’s Managed Properties Surpass Regional Averages

USAg’s tenants generally reported strong yields on USAg-managed properties. 

In Indiana, USAg-managed properties averaged 220.7 bushels per acre of corn, and 62.8 bushels per acre of soybeans. 

Similarly, USAg-managed properties in Illinois averaged 219.4 bushels per acre of corn, and 68.7 bushels per acre of soybeans. 

USAg takes considerable interest in improving farms after acquisition to help bolster productivity as part of our agricultural investment management strategy. This includes finding the best farmer for each property and making financial investments to improve farms. 

Through these efforts, USAg seeks to increase the productivity of the tillable ground. As a farmland investment firm, USAg takes pride in its properties producing above-average yields during the 2024 crop year.

Outlook for 2025

As we turn the calendar to 2025, land values have been resilient. Like other agriculture investment companies, USAg receives multiple appraisals on each property annually. 

These third-party reports have suggested Indiana and Illinois properties have declined by an average of approximately 2% during 2024 despite far more dramatic price declines in corn and soybean prices experienced during the year. 

As a farmland investment firm, USAg expects highly productive farms to hold their value relative to less productive farms. Farmland investment companies, in general, will need to keep a keen eye on these values throughout the year, as the Corn Belt remains a crucial part of American agriculture. 

We are proud to announce that USAgriculture has maintained full conformance with Leading Harvest’s Farmland Management Standard (LH FMS). This year marks our third year of certification — highlighting our commitment to sustainable farmland management practices.

Leading Harvest’s Standard is a third-party certification that ensures responsible stewardship of agricultural properties for future generations. The LH FMS is a rigorous process that requires the full dedication of our staff, tenants, and operators.

Averum, an independent certification body, completed a thorough surveillance audit over the summer, which spanned across properties we manage in the Pacific and Pacific Northwest regions. Their full summary can be found here: USAgriculture’s Leading Harvest Farmland Management Audit.

The audit reaffirmed USAgriculture’s effective sustainability practices, including notable energy conservation and biodiversity advancements. Additionally, we received zero major or minor non-conformances, reflecting our adherence to the highest standards in farmland management.

To learn more about Leading Harvest, please visit www.leadingharvest.org.

We are pleased to announce that we remain in conformance with Leading Harvest’s Farmland Management Standard. The nonprofit organization’s Standard is a third-party audited certification that serves to provide assurance for the sustainability of farmland management. It shows our dedication to leaving each of our properties better than we found them for the benefit of future generations.

This is our second year of certification to the Standard, which requires serious dedication from our staff, tenants, and operators. Averum completed an independent audit this summer to ensure conformance, and their summary report can be found here.

To learn more about Leading Harvest, please visit www.leadingharvest.org.

Given major US airlines’ recent pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 20501, we believe sustainable aviation fuel is a potential tailwind for US farmland investors. The fuel allows airlines to reduce emissions by offering a cleaner-burning fuel option than conventional jet fuel. Importantly, there are minimal switching costs for airlines to adopt this cleaner fuel option – airplane engines require no retrofitting and can run on a blend of the fuel today.

Download or keep reading below to learn more:

Leading Harvest Certification

We are pleased to announce that we received our official certification to Leading Harvest’s Farmland Management Standard. The nonprofit organization’s Standard is a third-party audited certification that serves to provide assurance for the sustainability of farmland management. It shows our dedication to leaving each of our properties better than we found them for the benefit of future generations.

Farmland investing is more than a job to us – it’s our passion. We are proud of this achievement that was started at the beginning of 2021. It required serious dedication from our staff, tenants, and operators. We look forward to a continued partnership with Leading Harvest for the benefit of all our stakeholders. Averum completed an independent audit to ensure conformance to the Standard, and their summary report can be found here.

We recently participated in a NCREIF webinar about farmland sustainability and stewardship with Kenny Fahey of Leading Harvest. A replay of the discussion hosted by NCREIF can be found here.

We are grateful for your support.