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Farmer losing rented ground to solar industry

A new kind of farm is competing for land in southwestern Illinois.

Grain farmer Dean Campbell of Coulterville tells Brownfield instead of competing with neighboring crop and livestock farmers to rent ground, he is fighting a losing battle with emerging solar farms.

“We have a development that happened to pick up 160 acres of our rent property and is nibbling at the door of 200 more.”

He says there is a power plant 10 miles west their farm and a new one 5 miles north.  

“That proximity to distribution and flat open real estate is what their looking for.”

He says it’s a losing battle because he can’t compete with the money solar companies are offering for the land.

“They’re making offers to people, if you agree with their contract, as much as four to five times the going cash ret for farm property.”

He says two facilities under construction nearby both have goals of expanding to 1000 acres or more which could result in farmers losing more land – a big concern when looking at budgets and profitability.