Learn the Value of Your Farm or Timberland
How valuable is your soil? Has the assessed value of your agricultural or timberland
increased in recent years? Have you ever wondered how your farmland may be
appraised? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, make plans now to visit
your local University of Illinois Extension office on July 24, 2008.
Dr. Kenneth R. Olson, Professor of Soil Science, at University of Illinois in ChampaignUrbana will present a talk and training session on July 24, 2008 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.
Topics to be addressed include:
Illinois Soils. This discussion will focus on the parent material in which Illinois soils
developed, the native vegetation the soils developed under, the soil temperature and
moisture regimes, classification of the Illinois soils, soil survey mapping and the soil
association map of Illinois.
Soil Productivity Ratings (PI). Using Bulletin 810, the average Illinois soil productivity
ratings will be discussed and average management used by Illinois farmers will be
defined. The crop yield trends since the 1970s will be documented, sources of crop yield
estimates presented, and crop rotations in the 1990s for both northern and southern
Illinois will be shown. The PI calculation for each Illinois soil, which involves individual
soil crop yield estimates and weighted by the crop rotations, will be presented. The
procedures used to calculate individual soil productivity indexes for all 780 Illinois soil
types and complexes, in comparison to the most productive Illinois soil, Muscatune silt
loam, will be discussed. The methods used to adjust the crop yield and PI estimates by
slope and erosion will be shown.
Farm Land Assessment using PI’s. The use of soil survey maps, soil productivity
ratings, and economic budgets in Illinois farmland assessment will be presented. Illinois
farmland assessment, under an average level of management, utilizes the average PI
assigned to each Illinois soil, the crop yield estimates and economic budgets to calculate
the return to land for each average PI between 130 and 60. In addition to the slope and
erosion adjustments, adjustments can be made for damage caused by flooding. Individual
soil and whole farm PI’s can be calculated. Current method used in farmland assessment
is by individual soil. Certified values are assigned to each PI between 130 and 60.
Prime Farm Land Identification and Assessment. The use of optimum PI’s (Bulletin
811) for agricultural land appraisal and sales of farmland will be presented. In addition,
prime farmland classes (Class A, Class B, and Class C) will be defined using optimum
PI’s, to permit consistent appraisal of similar soils. An exercise will be presented to show
how to calculate the optimum PI of a farm which includes the use of the optimum PI for
each soil and weighted by the acreage of each soil on the farm.
Timberland Assessment and Timber Yields. The timber yields of Illinois soils and
preferential assessment of Illinois timberland will be discussed if time permits. The
development of timberland site indices, how high a tree species will grow in 50 years on
a specific soil, will be discussed. In addition, the Illinois methods of assessment of
timberland will be presented. The assessment approach can vary depending on whether or
not the private timberland is on a farm, if it is stand alone timberland with a forest
management plan, if it has a conservation stewardship plan, or when timberland is not on
a farm and lacks both a forest management plan and a conservation stewardship plan.
The talk is part of the Local Government Information and Education Network and
Natural Resources Management Team telenet series. To register for the telenet please
contact Lake County Extension Office in Grayslake, at (847)223-8627 by July 14, 2008.