Rain, rain, rain; it’s certainly not the headline, but it’s been a big hitter for some farmers in the Midwest and Southeast this spring and summer. Halderman’s Vice President, Pat Karst, took a trip through multiple states right around the Fourth of July and he did a whole lot of road farming along the way.

With their headlights pointed West bound for Denver, Karst and his wife traveled through central Indiana, southern Illinois, central Missouri, northern Kansas and eastern Colorado before reaching their destination. They saw a lot of country and a whole lot of crops the last week of June.

“I wanted to see as many crops in the Midwest as possible and I was surprised on our drive out to Denver that the crops weren’t all that great,” Karst said. “Plenty had water damage and some even had standing water. Even though we’ve been fairly dry in northern Indiana, I wouldn’t have traded our crops for theirs.”

The drive home, however, was a different story. Hitting I80 took Karst north across the Cornhusker state, southern Iowa, northern Illinois and northern Indiana to get back home.

“This was over a month ago now, but at the time they had outstanding crops all along that route,” Karst said. “They had good, timely rains when maybe we didn’t back at home. The weather patterns have felt completely unpredictable anymore.”

Crops in Indiana are shaping up to be decent. Compared to last year, corn might be slightly down while beans could see a marginal uptick. Karst put it simply, “It looks to be a pretty good crop for 2025.”

Of course, a good crop is only as good as the commodity prices it sells for. That’s what’s making bankers cautious this year as they attempt to predict how the rest of 2025 will shake out.

“It seems like maybe some of our best trade partners are angry with us after the President added new tariffs, and I’m not sure what that’ll do for our commodities and their demand on the international market,” Karst said. “One thing I do know – we sold a lot of beans to China last year and so far we’ve sold almost none this year. Our big sale time for China is October through January, because our crops are ready to go and South America doesn’t have any then.”

President Trump is set to meet with China’s President in late fall, likely in October, with plans to resolve the tariff war. This could bring China back as a prominent soybean buyer, but there’s too much time between then and now to make any real predictions.

After all the hoopla this spring with the government budget cuts, agriculture came out ahead in a few areas.

“The USDA is moving most of their offices out of Washington DC to take advantage of cheaper rental rates and labor force while also being closer to the people they impact,” Karst said. “One of those four hubs will be Indianapolis.”

The other locations will be: Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Collins, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; and Raleigh, North Carolina. (Source: USDA Reorganization & Relocation)

The second quarter is historically slow for moving farm real estate, not only for Halderman but across the board. In the last 20 to 40 years, most land sales occur in the downtime between harvest and planting.

“Up until about ten years ago, we’d sell more farms in the first and fourth quarter than the other two quarters combined,” Karst said. “That’s not necessarily true anymore because third quarter is becoming extremely active.”

July, August and September make up the third quarter which is already well underway. The cause for this increase during the third quarter isn’t necessarily cause for concern.

“Sometimes farms are sold for what I call a time of life sale which usually means someone passed away and the farm needs to be sold,” Karst explained. “Sometimes people need cash and want to get it done before fall to improve their financial position going into harvest.”

So far sales are going well, no matter the quarter. Karst has noticed there are fewer bidders in the audience, but the prices have been holding steady. Some parts of Indiana are showing prices slightly reduced from last year, down about 5 or 6 percent, but otherwise land sales continue to be steady across the state.

Farm real estate continues to be the steady eddy of the industry year over year. Commodity and input prices continue to fluctuate as a sign of the times; farmer sentiment and optimism follow a similar pattern.

“The Purdue Ag Barometer still shows that people are optimistic about where we’re headed,” Karst said. “I expect the market to remain strong, but it’s been a seller’s market for several years now and so we might be headed in the direction of a more even playing field where prices will drop a bit and more buying opportunities will present themselves.”

“The farmer has to be an optimist, or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.” – Will Rogers