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Cash rent lease agreements are the most common type of lease agreement in Maryland. Cash rent is a fixed amount on a per-acre basis. The owner is relieved of operating and marketing decisions in this agreement, and income is known yearly.
The USDA's National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) estimates average cash rental rates per acre of irrigated cropland, non-irrigated cropland, and pastureland at the County, Ag District, and State levels annually updated when sufficient data is available. This data's source is producers' responses to annual farm-level surveys. To learn more about the Cash Rents Survey from NASS, visit here.
The University of Maryland breaks down the NASS data to assist Marylanders in understanding the trends in rental rates of various land uses (non-irrigated farmland, irrigated farmland, and pastureland) across the geographical areas of Maryland. In addition, farmers and ranchers can use this updated data rental rates data from their region "for use in making decisions regarding renting and leasing farmland," as summarized by NASS on their Surveys page for Cash Rents.
The updated publication includes Maryland’s Total rental rates for non-irrigated cropland, irrigated cropland, and pastureland, visualized in a moving-average line graph from 2009-2022. Additionally, the report delves into the cash rental rates (2009-2022) for non-irrigated land by county and Ag district, irrigated land by county and Ag district in the Lower and Eastern Shore Districts, and pastureland by county and Ag district in the North Central and Western ag districts.
Added this year to the Maryland rental rates report is a graph of Maryland’s average non-irrigated farmland re
ntal rate costs in relation to the agricultural district’s non-irrigated farmland rental rate costs from 2008 to 2022. This graph shows that since 2008, Western Maryland has, on average,
the lowest non-irrigated rental rates, and the Upper Eastern Shore of Maryland has the highest. To further visualize these relationships, the available county rental rates county data for Maryland from NASS are mapped for non-irrigated farmland, irrigated farmland, and pastureland. Animated versions of the non-irrigated and pastureland maps are included in the report. Additionally, the three layers can be seen and interacted with as web map layers through this link: https://go.umd.edu/rentalratemap
The publication is available at: https://go.umd.edu/UMELeases