Last year was another year of double-digit increases in farmland value in the state, according to the annual farm real estate market survey by South Dakota State University.

Ag land values rose 14.4 percent from 2006 to 2007, the same as the previous year, the report said.

Farm land values in South Dakota have doubled since 2002 and tripled since 1996. The latest reported increase tied for third-highest in the 17 years the survey has been taken. The record was 20.2 percent from 2004 to 2005, followed by a 17 percent increase from 2003 to 2004, said Larry Janssen, SDSU economics professor and one of the report’s authors.

The value of farm land varies from $285 per acre in the northwest to $1,946 per acre in the east-central region.

The statewide average was $850 an acre, up from $743 per acre in the previous report. The $107-an-acre increase is the second highest in the past 17 years. The average value in the northeast was $1,422 an acre, a 21 percent increase, and in the north-central region it was $945 per acre.

The survey is based on reports from 214 ag lenders, Farm Service Agency officials, rural appraisers, assessors, real estate agents, professional farm managers and Extension agricultural educators.

Land values rose despite the continued drought in western South Dakota, Janssen said.

“It shows the strengths of other factors,” Janssen said. “It wasn’t enough to really bring everything down. It remained positive, just at a slower rate.” The 14.4 percent increase equals the average increase of the past six years, he said.

“Two years were lower, and two were higher, but all were 10 percent or above, with the average being about 14,” Janssen said. “That’s a pretty major finding.”

Janssen said ethanol, made from corn, has contributed to the increase.