What Is Illinois Farmland Worth in Fall 2026? Reading the Adams, Brown, and Schuyler County Numbers
What the Published Ranges Actually Mean — and Do Not Mean
The Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers publishes per-acre value ranges by land quality category: excellent, good, average, fair, and poor. For western Illinois — the corridor that includes Adams, Brown, Pike, and Schuyler counties — the ranges reflect the bluff-country and river-bottom terrain that characterizes this part of the state, which is different in character from the high-PI flatground of central Illinois. The ranges published for the most recent reporting period show excellent western Illinois ground near $15,400 per acre and good ground near $11,300 per acre.
Those figures are ranges, not guarantees. They reflect the range within which the majority of qualifying transactions fell in the reporting period. A specific Adams County parcel that sold at $13,800 per acre was inside the good-to-excellent range. A specific Schuyler County parcel that sold at $10,200 per acre was below it. Both were real transactions that reflected everything that drives an individual auction result — the Productivity Index of the specific soil, the drainage situation, the tenant quality, the number of bidders in the room, and whether a neighboring operator who wanted that specific ground badly enough was registered and present on the auction day. The range tells you where comparable ground has been trading. It does not tell you where your ground will trade.
How Tile, Soil Rating, and Tenant Status Move the Per-Acre Number
In western Illinois, soil Productivity Index on agricultural ground ranges broadly. Adams and Schuyler County have high-PI bottomground and creek-flat soils interspersed with bluff-country timber and rough ground that does not produce at the same level. A seller with a 300-acre tract that includes 200 acres of creek-flat tillable at PI 115 and 100 acres of rough-to-timber ground is not selling a uniform property — they are selling a mixed property where the tillable acres and the rough acres need to be valued separately and presented clearly to the bidder pool.
Documented tile drainage on the tillable acres of a western Illinois tract does the same thing it does in central Illinois: it reduces bidder uncertainty and concentrates demand. A buyer who can verify that the 200 tillable acres have a mapped tile system with a clean outlet is buying a known quantity. A buyer evaluating the same 200 acres without drainage documentation is pricing in the cost of finding out what is under the ground after they own it. That uncertainty discount is real and it appears in auction results. Western Illinois ground with documented tile systems consistently outperforms comparable undocumented ground in competitive bid situations.
The tenant situation on western Illinois ground has a specific character worth understanding for a fall 2026 sale. Grain prices near $5.00 corn and $12.00 soybeans, combined with ARC/PLC support payments, have kept farm income from collapsing — but margins are thin and farm operators are watching input costs closely. A cash rent at or below the current market for the soil type is the tenant situation that produces the most bidder competition, because both neighboring operators and outside investors can underwrite the acquisition confidently. A cash rent that is above market for the soil — set during the higher-price years of 2022 or 2023 and not yet adjusted — creates a more complicated picture for a buyer who expects to hold the tenant at that rate.
What Fall 2026 Auction Results in the Western Illinois Corridor Are Showing
The fall auction calendar in western Illinois is active. Morgan, Scott, and Schuyler county auctions listed for October and November reflect the pattern of farm estate transfers and debt-repayment-motivated sales that has characterized the Illinois farmland market this year — estate sales represent more than half of farmland transfers in current ISPFMRA data, and debt-repayment-motivated sales have roughly doubled from prior years. These are not distressed sellers in the traditional sense, but they are sellers with a motivation to transact that is not dependent on achieving a maximum price, which creates a realistic auction calendar with genuine seller commitment.
The bidder pool at western Illinois auctions in fall 2026 is composed of three identifiable groups. The first is neighboring operators who want the ground to expand their operation and whose local knowledge of the specific parcel — its drainage, its history, its tenant — gives them a direct value assessment. The second is regional investors and family offices that have been accumulating Illinois farmland over the last decade and that view western Illinois ground as a relative-value opportunity compared to higher-priced central Illinois properties. The third is 1031 exchange buyers who need replacement property before a year-end deadline and whose motivation creates price support even when other buyer categories soften.
How to Think About Your Western Illinois Ground's Current Value
A seller in Adams, Brown, or Schuyler County who is evaluating whether to take a property to auction this fall or wait for spring should start with the PI of the tillable acres, not the statewide range. Ask your farm manager or your county assessor for the county soil productivity data on your specific parcel. Map the tillable acres against the rough and timber acres. Identify the documented tile coverage. Evaluate the tenant relationship — whether the current cash rent is at, above, or below market for that soil type and what the tenant's track record is.
A property with 115-PI tillable acres, a documented tile system, and a reliable long-term tenant at current market rent is a property with competitive bid potential in the current western Illinois market. A property with 95-PI tillable acres, no drainage documentation, and a cash rent above market is a property that needs preparation before it goes to market — specifically drainage documentation and a rent adjustment conversation with the tenant — to produce a result that reflects its actual potential rather than its least favorable presentation. The difference between those two preparations can be measured in hundreds of dollars per acre on a fall auction result.
Jared Williams is the Managing Broker and owner of Archer Realty & Auction LLC. He is a licensed Illinois auctioneer and serves on the Menard County Board of Review, specializing in farmland valuation, auction, and sale across central and western Illinois. Start the conversation at archerrealty.net.
