The latest farmland values report from Farm Credit Canada indicate that the average farmland in Canada increased by 7.9% in 2016.

Farmland in Saskatchewan was pretty steady near that point, increasing by 7.5% last year.

Dan Torwalt of Century 21 Diamond Realty in Humboldt tells us why values may have increased.

"It's like anything, buyers determine value of anything. Land, houses, or anything are worth what someone is willing to pay," he explained. "If someone is willing to pay more, prices are going to go up. If they aren't prices will slide sideways. If for whatever reason, there aren't many buyers out there, prices are going to drop."

Although the province saw the increase, here in the Humboldt and east-central region, prices remained relatively equal to the year prior.

Torwalt says reasoning behind that can be as simple as a tough harvest season.

"Farmers in the east-central had trouble getting the crop off. If you drive around now, you can see that there is still a lot of crop out there," he said. "On the west side of the province and the southwest, they were able to get the crop off. Out here and as soon as any farmers have some trouble, they pull back their horns a little bit."

The east-central and southeast parts of the province were the only two not to see an increase in farmland values for the year.

Torwalt noted that prices in Alberta are higher, and that may reflect land values for parts of Saskatchewan as well.

"They went up on the west side, up anywhere from 10 to 16 percent. It's just like your neighbour. If your neighbour's house is worth more, your price will be worth more too, so that probably indicated why prices were up on the west side."

"In the long term, I can't see why prices wouldn't go up higher."

For 2016 in Saskatchewan, the southwest saw the highest jump in values, up 16.6%. There was a 10.3% boost in the northwest, 9.3% in the northeast and for those in the west-central area, it jumped 7.8%.