Kansas Agricultural Use Valuation
Agricultural Land
In the early 1970's the voters of Kansas approved a constitutional ammendment that provided for an alternative method of valuing agricultural land. This method is use value. The use value method was not implemented until enabling legislation was enacted as a part of the statewide reappraisal in 1985. The use values went into effect for the 1989 tax year.
All other real estate is valued based upon market value giving consideration to the three classic approaches to value. These values reflect the actions of the buyers and sellers and reflect any change in the market from the previous year.
Agricultural land is not based upon market value. The sale price of agricultural land has no bearing upon the value for tax purposes. The Kansas Constitution requires agricultural land to be valued based on its income or productivity. This is commonly called “use value” appraisal. Agricultural Use Valuation in Kansas is a modified income approach to value.
Kansas Statutes Annotated (K.S.A) 79-1476 requires that an 8-year average of landlord net income be used for determining the agricultural use values. For any valuation year, data from the prior eight calendar years are average to determine a net income. Therefore, unlike the valuation of Residential properties, Agricultural properties are based totally upon historical data.
Values for each soil type are developed based upon Soil Rating for Plant Growth (SRPG). SRPG is the system that rates the
growth capability of each soil after taking into consideration:
- Surface Structure and Nutrients
- Water Features
- Toxicity
- Soil Reaction
- Climate
- Physical Profile
- Landscape
Historical data is always used. The resulting values for ag land change each year as the oldest data in the eight year average is replaced with the newest year.
THE COUNTY APPRAISER’S OFFICE DOES NOT SET THESE VALUES AND CANNOT CHANGE THEM.
Our function in agricultural land valuation is the determination of use (cultivation, native grass or tame grass). If the county has the correct use, then the assigned valuation by our office is correct. If you have questions concerning the use on your land, please contact us at any time. You do not have to appeal to inquire about any data concerning your property.