Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Iowa Farm Land Auction Sale Today.

We pushed it to the next to last bid. 141.4 acres, 31 cares good crop ground, the rest pasture brought $8,250. Who knows if we should have kept bidding.

I assume that is per acre?

Yes, per acre, the total was $1,1665.50.

Damn that is crazy.



Things are way cheaper out here but we obviously don't have the amazing soil and moisture.


Local that would be say $800/acre for (dryland)farm ground, maybe $350-500 for pasture.

The last land that sold here, private sale, brought $14,000 an acre, for a 50 acre tract. Now, it was sold to a Mennonite, and I'm sure he'd sold some land back in Pennsylvania before coming here, so he may have already had the money as far as I know. It was all tillable, but had no buildings on it, and they put up a big house, barn, and shed, so that added to the cost.

They have about half the place planted in produce and tobacco, and the rest is rented to a local farmer. The other half of that farm sold a couple of years ago for $12,000 an acre to another Mennonite, and it had an older house. It's about a mile from me as the crow flies, the same distance in the opposite direction as another farm that also brought $12,000 an acre a couple of years back.

It's hard to say just what land is worth here, as the Mennonites buy just about all of it, and they look at it differently that I would. They are here in large numbers, and have to have the land in order to stay here, so they pay whatever it takes to buy it. I own 300 acres, and the thought has crossed my mind more than once to sell out and go somewhere that land is not so high, and buy more. But, my family has owned this land since the mid-1800's, so it's part of my heritage to stay here, and besides, I really don't want to live anywhere else. Besides, land everywhere around here is too damn high, and I'd have to more than likely move a long ways off to find cheap land.

I buy land here for $400-$2000 all day long... the only tracts bringing that kind of money are commercial.

That was just a bit higher than most folks had it pegged. A good fellow just across the highway bought it.

My cousin has this ranch for sale: https://www.llpranchland.com/listings/antelope-springs-ranch

Bargain priced at under $1700 an acre.

Anyone interested?

Wonder how many rattlesnakes per acre, RBB? I've hunted in that area and an ex-BIL lived on a ranch between there and Colorado City. He loved to catch rattlesnakes.

How many cows would that support?

I imagine it's got quite a few...

My cousin, Bill is a more than a bit eccentric. He designed and built that house. He is a very highly acclaimed architect... designed professional golf courses, etc.

But, he's never been a rancher. I doubt that place even has any cows on it. If there are some, it's for the ag exemption.

That entire ranch, including the house was decimated by wildfire a few years back. They rebuilt and renovated it all.

down here a 125ft by 125ft lot in a high end subdvison starts at 25000,00 then at least 3 to 4 hundred thousand to build a house

rbb
I love the "house" he built there.

Wonder if one could ever get any amount of native grasses established on that soil.

Just wondering,
with 31 in crop and 110 +/- in pasture...
how in the world do you talk a banker into that?
and/or if you have the cash on hand, how do you ever beat a 2% CD in town on your million?
Unless you develop it into houses or malls I don't understand how you recover, let alone get a return, on your outlay in 2 lifetimes.....but then again, I'm not very smart.

Broseph, I was wondering the same thing.

I've long wondered how much of what crop would be necessary to make the interest on a loan or to supersede other forms of investment if no loan was involved.

Around here land for ag use always sells for more than it will cash flow, crops or cows.

Except for the crisis of the early 80's land has appreciated in value, and that makes it work.

I'd better correct myself, Out of the 141.4 acres, all but 31 are tillable. Still a lot of money.

Old farmer nehbor up the road has bought about 3000 acres here in se Nebraska over his lifetime...he is 83 ....told me he never bought a farm he didn't think was too much at the time...his first farm was 150/ acre....he paid it off in 3 years....last one he bought a few years ago around 7500..
My grandad was the same way...he bought one one time and paid it off with his first crop....that will just never happen these days with the safety net of fed crop insurance....
Someday you may look back and say boy I should have payed up and got that farm...

how much net income will an acre of corn or soybeans generate - assume avg over 10 years?

Back when land was cheap, it didn't take long to pay a farm off, if you were good at managing money, and had a good crop. It'd be hard to do that today, especially with the land prices around here. I had chances to buy more land when I was younger, but wanted to wait until I had one paid off, before buying another one. Big mistake......one I see now. I'll never be able to buy more land around here now. I'm too old to want to go in debt again, and it's not worth what it's bringing.

Around here a $7500 per acre piece of dryland farmland wouldn't pay for itself EVER........not saying some hedge fund or very cash heavy buyer wouldn't bite it off......just saying it will never pencil growing crop on it.
Hell, $3500 an acre won't pencil....and it's pretty good dirt around here. (lot of 100 bu. wheat this summer around)






Wabi, if you pull 2 crops most years off this ground does the banker say it pencils?

I'll bet at these prices, unless you own the ground free and clear, your NET is underwater this year.

They used this theory on housing in the 2000's.......right up to the crash.
The positive about ag is, in a crash or recession ag tends to improve......alot.

No, the land will not pay for it's self, it takes other income.

There's always NEXT year.

What happens around here is the old guys who were wise and bought land back in the 80s for 600 dollars an acre are still making money and are looking for a place to park money....and land is a safe place...when you get 2 of those guys at an auction you may as well go home..we have a few outside investors buying up land too...
So if you have a million dollars setting around. It would buy you 1/4 section here....and you get 35-40k guaranteed income minus taxes..if you rent it...its a very low risk investment...when you want to cash out there is a good chance you will get more than you paid...

You get agriculture people to pay a 35-40k lease on 160 acres?

That must be some pretty productive land.

Or are you talking about city slickers with desk jobs leasing it?

That's what I thought.....
or it's irrigated, maybe.
That is over $200 an acre for rent.

Sure do....some even pay mor than that...
Current rates around here are around 200-225/acre...
My aunt has a 160 se was getting 400 for it....now is down around 300. That's why I'm not renting it from her...my rental ground is at 200..

Just to clarify ....we only pay for the productive acres...so out of a good 160 acres you are luckey to get 140-farmable... If there is a creek or timber....ect it doesn't count...
Also pasture or hay ground is 50 or so...and that might be too much...
So if your a land owner it is a big benefit to put those non productive acres int one of the gov programs....and it sure helps the wildlife...

Non irrigated dry land is what I'm talking...

Bankers don't mind loaning too much on land...you can't run off with it...can't hide it...they know if you don't pay they can sell it...if it doesn't bring what you owe they sell all your other assets....
This is exactly the farm crisis of the 80s....when interest went to 18 percent guys just couldn't pay....banks went down with them...

Rainier,
what crops do you produce on it?

Corn and soybeans...
Have a few cattle running on pasture...

Our soils have a deep clay subsoil layer that holds moister..when it doesn't rain the corn can service without irrigation as long as we have had winter snow and spring rain..

Nice.
Can you pull a corn and a bean crop in the same year?

No just one crop...some do beans after wheat but they don't yeald well ..normal yealds for us is 60-80 bu on normal years...
Jimmy Fredricks lives just south of here and holds the world record title at 163 bu
Our corn on good ground does 180-200 and on poor ground 150. Or less...

Double crop? No

Insane. I never would have imagined it'd bring $8250/acre, not even if it was all premium tillable.

Interesting thread. 20 years ago, I could have bought a section for $600/acre near here. It was fee land, but within the exterior borders of the reservation so there was a discount. I could have made it work but wasn't terribly interested in tying myself to it.

One of my partners recently purchased 40 acres about 20 miles out of town as a potential homesite. With three little kids, I don't know what he was thinking there but its his deal not mine. In any event, the US has paid him to plant a crop, paid him to fence it, paid him to plant trees, and paid him to drill a (dry) well. Not 100% but like 80 and 90% of the costs. He's got checks rolling in from Uncle Sam all the time on a hobby farm. That's where the real money is in land. What can you get them to pay you for?

Finally, land is selling for less here than it did five years ago. Much less. And people find themselves having to divest some of their holdings to maintain their financing as a result. There could be a real correction coming, probably not but its possible. Lots of land about to hit the market, up to the buyers to hold the price up.

Tulip bulbs?

Did he enroll it in lifetime CRP?
Does he have a stream running thru it?
EQUIPP maybe?

There are landowners around here doing some of the above, but they have to let the public hunt, fish and recreate on it, as it was public money that paid for the "improvements".

There's 60 acres joining me to the south that I'd love to have. If I could figure out a way to get the gov. to pay 80% of it, I'd jump on it.

Gonna have to look into this.

"I'm not greedy; all I want is the land next to mine."

They will pay 80% to cross-fence many pastures, I do know that for certain. Then most guys around here just leave the cross-fence gates open and let the cows roam around anyway.

No kidding, I suspect much of the opposition to wind farms in this area is that neighbors covet the owner's land and don't want him to have an income stream (from wind turbines) that might allow him to hang onto it.

Did he enroll it in lifetime CRP?
Does he have a stream running thru it?
EQUIPP maybe?

I don't think CRP, its along the river bluffs but away from the stream, and I have no idea what EQUIPP means.

Randy, several years back I looked at putting my land into a Quail restoration program, and short term you did not get enough money to pay for putting up the Federal Government. You could put it into one that paid about 70% of the lands value, but it was it that forever. I mean death did not do away with it. You could lease it out for hunting, or hunt it yourself, but you still had to pay taxes and they had all kind of rules about mowing, food plots and such. You leave it to your kids and they are saddled with land with very limited use, except for hunting, and I figure resale would be low priced, as it was still under government control. Or at least that was the way it was explained to me. miles