Even with the increase in the applicable credit amount to $5 million per decedent in 2011,1 (up from $3.5 million in 2009),2 and the newly enacted “portability” rules that permit a decedent to utilize the remaining applicable credit amount (or applicable exclusion amount) of the last deceased spouse (dying after 2010) at least for 2011 and 2012,3 the rapid run-up in farmland values in many areas the past few months has caused some farm and ranch estates to keep an eye on special use valuation.4 That provision enables estates with eligible real property to reduce the gross estate for deaths in 2011 by as much as $1,020,000 for the special use valuation of “qualified real property.”5