So much depends on what's bordering the property. If it's public land, you're normally good. Around here, you never buy rural land without spending a lot of time looking at satellite views of the area. There are a lot of big dairies here and you really don't want to be less than 5 miles downwind of one. We have one 3 miles straight south of us. 2 or 3 times a year, we'll have a dead calm day and the smell will roll north and we get some of it. We can live with it a few times a year but to have to smell it all the time would be unlivable.
And you never know what changes so-called 'progress' might bring in at some point in the future, either. This area experienced such 'progress' a couple of decades ago with the coming of a major poultry processing plant. The property a huge main processing facility was built on was previously a several hundred acre farm along with a separate hatchery and a feed mill on what had been farm ground as well, but each in different adjoining counties.
Then came the many raising houses scattered all over owned and operated by private individuals with at least 5 acres to devote to a minimum of 2 raising houses. More acreage - more raising house... Property values nearby gradually went in the pits. One home owner next to the main processing plant finally just gave up trying to sell. Was a nice house and property, too. Like the dairy farms, when the wind was right forget about entertaining outdoors or indulging in any normally enjoyable outdoor activities. The closer to the processing plant and raising houses the worse the stench is too, wind or no wind.
