Farmland Reserve, the agricultural investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owns the most farmland in Illinois, with roughly 54,000 acres. Farmland Partners Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust, is second at about 46,000 acres. Among families, the Scullys hold nearly 35,800 acres in Logan County and the Lawrences control over 33,000 acres statewide. Bill Gates, often assumed to be at the top of the list, actually ranks around sixth with about 17,000 acres. Together, the ten largest landowners control just under one percent of the 27 million acres of farmland in Illinois, which covers roughly 75 percent of the state’s total land area.1Illinois Department of Agriculture. Facts About Illinois Agriculture
The Largest Institutional Owners
Farmland Reserve, based in Salt Lake City, manages its holdings as a long-term financial reserve for the LDS Church’s humanitarian and operational needs. Its nearly 54,000 Illinois acres are professionally managed for commercial crop production. Unlike many institutional owners, Farmland Reserve rarely sells parcels once it acquires them, which gives it an outsized stabilizing effect on the local land market.
Farmland Partners Inc. takes a different approach. As a publicly traded REIT, it acquires farmland across the country and leases it back to local operators. Almost half of its national portfolio of roughly 92,500 acres sits in Illinois. The leases are typically structured so the tenant pays property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, giving the company predictable revenue without the operational risks of farming. In 2024, the statewide average cash rent for non-irrigated Illinois cropland ran about $269 per acre, which helps explain why institutional investors favor the state.2USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Illinois Cash Rent County Estimates
Ceres Partners, a private investment firm focused exclusively on farmland, rounds out the major institutional players with over 22,000 acres in Illinois. Pension funds and insurance companies also hold scattered parcels across the state, drawn by farmland’s reputation as an inflation hedge with low correlation to stock market swings. These entities generally target land with high soil productivity ratings, since better soil commands higher rents and appreciates more reliably.
Individual and Family Owners
Among private individuals, Gaylon Lawrence Jr. controls the largest Illinois footprint at just over 33,000 acres. Lawrence, a Mississippi-based investor, owns more than 165,000 acres of farmland across multiple states, with Illinois representing a significant share. His operations rely heavily on leasing to local farmers rather than direct farming.
The Scully family has been part of Illinois agriculture for well over a century. Their roughly 35,800 acres, concentrated in Logan County, trace back to William Scully, an Irish immigrant who amassed enormous Midwestern landholdings in the 1800s. The family still manages these tracts through long-term lease arrangements, making them one of the state’s most enduring agricultural dynasties.
Bill Gates, through his asset management firm Cascade Investment LLC, owns approximately 17,000 acres of Illinois farmland.3Farm Progress. Who Owns the Most Farmland in Illinois? Gates draws the most headlines, but his Illinois holdings are dwarfed by several entities and families that have been buying land here for decades. Other notable individual owners include Shahid Khan, the Jacksonville Jaguars owner, and the Lo family, which holds over 11,000 acres primarily in Champaign County.
How Big Owners Hold Their Land
Most large individual owners use limited liability companies, family limited partnerships, or land trusts to hold their acreage. These structures limit personal liability if something goes wrong on the land, and they simplify transferring ownership to the next generation without triggering a full sale. Absentee owners who don’t farm their own ground often hire professional farm management companies, which typically charge between five and seven percent of gross farm income to handle tenant selection, lease negotiation, and soil conservation planning.
The University of Illinois
The University of Illinois System manages over 13,000 acres of endowment and non-endowment farmland scattered across the state.4University of Illinois System. Agricultural Property Services Endowment farms, the bulk of the holdings, were donated over the past century starting in 1923. Each farm is managed according to the donor’s original wishes, with earnings funding student scholarships, research fellowships, and loan programs. Non-endowment farms support other university activities, including on-farm research trials and buffer zones around the university airport required by federal aviation regulations.
Because these lands are held under trust agreements that restrict how income is spent, the university rarely sells parcels. That long-term orientation makes it one of the most stable large landowners in the state, insulating thousands of acres from the speculative buying and selling that moves through parts of the farmland market.
Foreign Ownership of Illinois Farmland
Foreign investors held about 875,000 acres of Illinois farmland as of the end of 2024, representing 2.9 percent of the state’s privately held agricultural land.5Farm Service Agency. Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land That share is slightly below the national average of 3.5 percent. Canadian investors account for the largest portion, often tied to timber, energy, and row-crop interests in the southern part of the state.
Federal law requires every foreign person or entity that acquires agricultural land to report the transaction to the Secretary of Agriculture within 90 days.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 U.S.C. Chapter 66 – Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure The penalty for failing to report can reach 25 percent of the land’s fair market value.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 U.S.C. 3502 – Civil Penalty Foreign owners pay the same local property taxes as domestic landholders.
Illinois currently allows all noncitizens to acquire and hold real property within the state. That may change. Two bills under consideration in the state legislature would restrict farmland purchases by individuals, entities, and government officials linked to countries of concern, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. One proposal would require existing foreign holders from those countries to register their land with the Illinois Department of Agriculture by July 2026 or face daily civil penalties of $1,000. Violators could also face forfeiture of the land through public auction. Separately, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States can review farmland purchases near military installations regardless of state law. Under rules finalized in late 2024, CFIUS jurisdiction extends one mile from the boundary of certain installations and up to 100 miles from others, depending on the sensitivity of the site.8Federal Register. Definition of Military Installation and the List of Military Installations in the Regulations Illinois is home to Scott Air Force Base, the Rock Island Arsenal, and other defense facilities, so foreign buyers in those regions face an additional layer of federal scrutiny.
Why Large Owners Hold On
Illinois taxes farmland based on its agricultural earning potential rather than its fair market value, which keeps tax bills far lower than they would be for residential or commercial property. Each acre is assigned a soil productivity index, and the state calculates an equalized assessed value using a formula that incorporates net farm income and the Federal Land Bank interest rate.9Illinois Department of Revenue. Instructions for Farmland Assessments For 2026, certified equalized assessed values for cropland range from roughly $436 per acre for lower-productivity soils to over $1,066 per acre for the best ground. The same ground, sold outright in central Illinois during 2024, went for $15,000 to nearly $20,000 per acre.
The federal tax code reinforces that same patience. Heirs who inherit farmland receive it with a cost basis reset to fair market value on the date of death, so decades of appreciation never get taxed as capital gains if the family holds the land through the generation shift.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent Owners who do sell during life can defer the tax further through a Section 1031 like-kind exchange, rolling proceeds into other real property within strict 45- and 180-day deadlines.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1031 – Exchange of Real Property Held for Productive Use or Investment Between favorable assessments, the stepped-up basis, and 1031 deferrals, the structure of U.S. tax law explains much of why the same institutions and families keep showing up at the top of Illinois ownership rankings decade after decade.