Eastern North Carolina Small Farms for Sale - 106 Properties (2024)

FAQs

What is the average price per acre of farmland in NC? ›

Please note that some applications and/or services may not function as expected when translated. The recently released USDA Land Values 2022 Summary report shows an overall 8.4% increase in average NC farmland value to $5,150 per acre.

Investing in agricultural land can be a great opportunity to capitalize on the current market, with some states offering highly affordable farmland. North Dakota and Wyoming are two of the most cost-effective states for farming land, followed by Alabama and Kentucky.

Some of the best states to start a farm or ranch are Montana, Kansas, North Dakota, Texas and Oklahoma, to name a few. Though farming or ranching are not considered glamorous, it is still one of the most rewarding and essential professions in the world.

A farm is a tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production. A farm is classified of having $1,000 or more of agricultural products being produced or sold. A Small Farm, according to USDA census is a farm that is 179 acres or less in size, or earns $50,000 or less in gross income per year.

All 100 counties have land classified as agricultural, ranging from Sampson County's 292,000 acres to Dare County's 115 acres. Randolph County has the most farms statewide, with . 1,238; Buncombe and . Chatham counties each also . have over 1,000 farms.

Annual NC farmland rental rates can vary widely from $13 to $260 per acre for cropland, with most pastureland rent from $15 to $50 per acre. In some situations, landowners may offer a no-cost lease to farmers who agree to keep the land in production.

North Carolina remains one of the most productive states in the U.S. when it comes to growing crops like tobacco and sweet potatoes and raising chickens and hogs for consumption.

What state is number 1 for farming? ›

California ranks first in the U.S. for agricultural cash receipts followed by Iowa, Texas, Nebraska and Illinois. How much does agriculture contribute to the economy?

The most recent glacier that pushed into Iowa (roughly 15,000 years ago) created the fertile Des Moines Lobe and left about 600 billion tons of loess in Iowa. The farm shown here is located in the Loess Hills of western Iowa. Iowa is blessed with some of the world's most fertile soil.

Many farms start by leasing property, or connecting to other resources like incubator farms. There are funding options for outright land purchases – the USDA Beginning Farmer program and working with a lender like Carolina Farm Credit are good places to start.

There is no universal license or certification that farmers are required to have. However, a license or certification is required for certain specific activities. Selling plants – In most cases, selling plants requires a certificate from NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

To qualify, farmers must have an average annual gross income of $10,000 from farming operations for the three preceding years. Those who are new to farming may apply for “conditional” status, but there are extensive record keeping and reporting requirements, plus penalties for failure to meet those requirements.

In May, USDA's Commodity Costs and Returns re-confirmed that input costs for all major crops were indeed at a record in 2022, ranging from $431 per acre for wheat, $621 per acre for soybeans, $876 per acre for cotton, $911 per acre for corn, and at or above $1,200 per acre for both rice and peanuts.

Average four-crop gross income per acre = approximately $790 per acre.

U.S. farm real estate value – the value of all land and buildings on farms – averaged $4,080 per acre in 2023, an increase of $280 per acre from 2022. At the state level, average value in 2023 ranged from $610 per acre in New Mexico to $18,300 in Rhode Island.

The ten states with the cheapest land are Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi, Colorado, Arkansas, New York, Missouri, Oregon, Alabama, and Michigan. Arizona is the cheapest state to buy land with a median price of $4,164 per acre.