What is a CSR?

Top 50 Questions about Farmland

Hey, it's the Iowa Land guy, and here's the top 50 questions that I get asked about farmland. Did you know in Iowa we have a CSR score or a, a crop suitability or corn suitability rating. What the heck is that? It's a productivity index. So how good is the farm, is what it is kind of like. Uh, a scale one to 10, except in Iowa that goes from 0.5 to 100.

100 is the best farm, the best, uh, most producing ground in Iowa. Okay. Now different parts of the state, uh, have different csr. 1978 is when Iowa State came up with the CSR score or the productivity index in 2015, they revamped it into a CSR two score and CSR two score. Uh, the biggest difference is water holding capability.

So lots of factors that go into a CSR score from slope, topography, soil type. Is it Nicolet? Is it Webster? Is it clarion loam? Is it loam or. Sandy soil and of course, um, water holding capability as I just indicated. So all those factors go into a CSR or a CSR two score. Since 2015, all government agencies from U S D A to F S A to the county assessor use the CSR two score.

So when you're looking to sell your farm, you're gonna wanna find out what is your productivity index or what is your CSR two score.

David Whitaker | Iowa Land Guy