Macon County farmland rented for an average of $135 an acre this year, down $4 from 2025, according to USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service county cash-rent survey for 2026.
The figure is for non-irrigated cropland. It is down 2.9% from $139 an acre last year.
Rents also slipped statewide. Missouri's median county rent for non-irrigated cropland was $117 an acre in 2026, down from $124 in 2025, according to the survey. Macon County's average was $18 an acre above that median and ranked 47th highest of the 109 Missouri counties with a published 2026 figure.
Pasture in Macon County rented for an average of $32 an acre. That is the lowest pasture rent among Macon and its seven bordering counties and below the statewide median of about $40 an acre. Pasture rents in the neighboring counties ranged from $38.50 an acre in Shelby County to $60 in Knox County.
Among the seven counties that border Macon, only Chariton County also saw cropland rent fall. Here are the 2026 non-irrigated cropland rents for Macon and its neighbors, with the 2025 figure in parentheses, according to the survey:
- Adair: $121 ($114)
- Chariton: $156 ($172)
- Knox: $173 ($173)
- Linn: $134 ($128)
- Monroe: $171 ($156)
- Randolph: $144 ($144)
- Shelby: $177 ($163)
- Macon: $135 ($139)
Chariton County had the biggest drop in the group, $16 an acre, or 9.3%. Knox and Randolph counties held even. Adair, Linn, Monroe, and Shelby counties all rose, with Monroe up 9.6% and Shelby up 8.6%.
Shelby County had the highest cropland rent of the eight at $177 an acre. Only Linn County, at $134, and Adair County, at $121, came in below Macon. The median rent among the seven bordering counties was $156, putting Macon $21 an acre below its typical neighbor.
Macon County's figure has moved up and down in recent surveys. It was $105 an acre in 2024 and rebounded to $139 in 2025 before this year's dip, according to the survey's county history. Over 10 years, the county's rent is up 7.1%, from $126 an acre in 2016.
NASS did not publish an irrigated cropland rent for Macon County.
The survey figures are county averages of the cash rent farmers reported paying per acre. They are not an appraisal of any particular farm. NASS does not publish a county figure when too few farms respond, which is why some Missouri counties have no 2026 number.
For comparison, Macon County farmland and buildings were valued at an average of $4,026 an acre in the 2022 Census of Agriculture. That figure is the farm operators' own estimate of what their land and buildings were worth, not a sale price.