Mike Walsten

Mike Walsten has covered major business trends in agriculture for more than 35 years. From the southern corn leaf blight of 1970 to today’'s biofuels focus, he’'s lived, reported and analyzed the impact of volatile markets on farm and ranch businesses and on land prices. After growing up on a grain and livestock farm in Western Illinois, Mike graduated from the University of Illinois with an undergraduate degree in agriculture communications and a master’'s degree in business administration in the early 1970s. Since then he’'s covered business and management issues as well as price outlook and marketing issues in various positions with Farm Journal Magazine and Professional Farmers of America. He now applies his extensive background and analytical skills to today’'s surprising farm and ranch market as editor of LandOwner.

Latest Stories
The $270 Statewide Average Is Down $9 from the 2023 and 2024 High.
Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank Notes Decline in Farm Incomes in Q1
Rural Mainstreet Index Falls Below Growth Neutral for Fourth Straight Month

But values eased 1% during the first quarter of 2026 versus the fourth quarter of 2025.
Cropland values post modest gain.
NDSU Update Finds Slim Gain Amid Wide Regional Variation
54% Rural Bankers Say Local Economies Are in Recession
Survey of land professionals finds more the 60% expect lower values in 2026.
But Bankers Have Favorable Outlook on Farmland
Semi-annual survey finds first blooms of optimism in three years.