Tomorrow at ten. Anyone have $1,600,000 you don't know what to do with?

I'm not land hungry.... I just want the piece next to mine.

I'm gonna need a few more details before I wire the cash.

From what I read about other sales it's probably about 160 acres.

I always figured good Iowa farmland was worth a lot more than farmland here, but the last 2 tracts of farmland that sold close to me, brought $12,000 and $14, 000 an acre. Now, it was good land, all tillable, and bought by Mennonites, but that's just too much to try and pay for by farming.

By Mennonites is the key James. They pay more than market value in this area too. Our area, the wealthiest farmers are the ones that develop their land for new subdivisions.

How much land?

$1.6 may be cheap...

160, more, or less is how they list it, I thimk.

I am definitely in once the money comes in from the Ethiopian Prince that I got the email from. He needs to get a ton of money into the US and I am getting $2 mill to receive it. At least that is what he told me when I sent him the $10,000 receivers fee................

How much money do you make from farming an acre of that land counting subsidies, crop insurance, all that jazz? You would have to look at it like a business and value it thusly and see what the "PE ratio" is. Plus it deserves a premium because "they ain't making any more of it".

Just the farm land?

Or is it "the farm" included with house, barn, etc?

A small pole machine shed, and an old scale, a few trees in one corner.

They are giving choice of 80 acre tracts, but I think it will sell as one piece.

I see it is 165 acers.[img]https://stalcupag.com/real-estate/auctions-and-listings/sac-county-land-auction-november-14-2019-2/[/img]

So you're thinking it'll bring 10k/acre?

I remember giving $450 an acre for a farm and worrying myself half sick as to whether or not I could pay for it by farming it, but I did. I cannot imagine giving $10,000 or more an acre and having to pay for it by farming it. It would be extremely hard to do.

I tried wiring some cash for land in Nigeria twice, and never got any land or even a thanks!!

Unless it is registered as a legacy farm, those acres will probably go to a developer. The plague of Johhny Condoseed marches on...

Will any local banks finance that kind of money for vacant land ? We have to put a minimum of 30 % down, even if there is timber and good water.

Land Bank will finance more land than you can pay for.

Why not? It ain't going anywhere.

Man.

You totally lost me there.

What, pray tell, is a registered legacy farm?

A legacy farm is one where the state has paid the owner a certain amount roughly equivalent to what a developer would pay for the land, and in return the land is listed as farm land in perpetuity. It cannot be sold for any purpose other than farming. My family has such a farm in New Jersey. There can never be houses built there.

Edit to clarify: The state pays the difference between what the land is worth as farm property versus developable property. In my uncle's case, the difference amounted to about $1000/acre, so he got $100,000 for his 100 acres. In the future, the land can still be sold for whatever it can bring, but ONLY as farm land.

Very interesting.

Which states do that?

I've heard of the Federales paying farmers not to farm.

I've heard of states giving agriculture land owners such as farmers or ranchers an Ag Exemption from state sales taxes of stuff they buy that's ag related.

But sure have not heard of states paying ag folks full retail development land prices to keep farming.

all states do it... it is called a conservation easement - every one is different from the next ome

Read my re-edited edit for clarification. I don't know how many states do this, but it is in everyone's interest that they do. We are losing tillable land at a horrifying rate, and once farm land becomes houses, it is gone forever.

Okay.

Sounds like you are selling your private property rights to land you own, to the gooberment....

Wonder what happens if they go broke? Then the farm goes on the auction block?

Are the new owners bound by the same stupidity, only they don't get the goobermint payout?

Bullshit.

What is in everyone's best interest is for government to keep their damned paws out of anyone's private property rights. And quit any subsidizing of industry where natural markets would be picking it's own winners and losers, rather than have them picked by big govt and the ensuing regulations.

It's a step, but it can still be sold to some huge corporation, further eliminating the chance for young people to enter farming.

If someone wants to buy farm land and build condos, you are guys saying that should be prohibited? Downright unAmerican of ya. And no, there shouldn't be any .gov subsidies to keep it farmland either. You own, you do what you want. That's the American Dream.

I know exactly what a "conservation easement" is.

That ain't it.

There may be some instances where some portions of land are allowed to remain in agriculture, but the VAST majority of "conservation easements" by CRP or USDA/NRCS are taking agriculture land OUT of production and putting it under the heavy thump of govt control forever, never to return to productive ag land, but to restore it to it's natural state for "environmental reasons"... And give the public access to your private owned land.

Don't we have enough public land that you can't plow up and grow crops on, without the government buying more of it to keep out of ag production?

Bad subject for me.

I wonder why we have "welfare farmers or ranchers"...

We are the government. We are here to help.... NOT.

It is, because there is stipulations in each case... and the farm has to be in a sensitive area.. its not like they just pick any old farm...

Nowhere did I say that the legacy farm program is mandatory. It is a viable option for families struggling with the dilemma of keeping their land as a farm but also struggling with the economics of being farmers. Or where sons and daughters may argue over farming versus developing after the parents pass away.

If you'd rather your land turn into condos forever than feed people, that's up to you.

I'd rather maintain control of my private property rights, and my heir's free will to do with it as they see fit.

Hell, I may even want to sell the ranch when I get too damned old to run it, and buy a house on smaller acreage and have couple of million $$'s in the bank.



If agriculture is to be profitable in the future, then the first thing that needs to happen is to get govt fingers out of the pie.

As I said, you are perfectly free to do so. Others may not be in your position.

But remember: If agriculture is to exist at all in the future, it can't happen in subdivisions.

1031 money keeps land prices inflated around here.

If agriculture is to exist in the future, at all, we need to quit hamstringing it with dumbass subsidies and stupid govt regulations, and let it get back to the natural markets of supply and demand.

The reason it more profitable to sell land to a developer is that you make much more money that trying to scratch out a living, and sell what you produce for government approved compensation.

The USDA ain't a damned bit "for" agriculture. They are about buying agriculture products as cheaply as they can so that they can feed the boos in the inner cities on welfare and food stamps as cheaply as they can.

That way, not only the inner cities, but the rural areas are under the thumb of govt.


If it cost a farmer ______$$ to grow a bushel of corn, then by God they ought to be able to sell it for a profit. Not be fed the carrot on a string as long as you walk in the direction the person with the string wants you to walk.

It ain't the farmers that benefit the most from subsidies. It's the people buying a gallon of milk in the store for $2.39, and not paying the $8 it costs to produce.

Lol... you do realize the vast majority of american farming as you would think.... specifically this iowa piece.. is grain and not food for the “boo’s” as you put it...

This post is going down like 90% of the political threads on here... 99% of the posters havent a clue wtf they are talking about, but do so with such authority...

Land prices are indeed high. We have ground in western Iowa that is mixed in regards to cropland/timber. Many of the farms were purchased when land was between $400-$900 per acre. Worth way more now. Not sure that $10,000 would be seen around here but I have seen some pretty rough ground go for over $7000 per acre

Bad time to buy land for framing. With the climate change you could be in a desert or under ice and snow. Suggest we wait and see.

LOL.

You do realize you are not talking to an inner city dumbass, don't you?



So grain isn't food?

What feeds the beef? What feeds the milk cows? Where does bread come from?

You sure are right about most of the posters here not having the most remote clue.

ol mean rough land around here is allus converted to subdivisions. even when in the past it had row crops (cotton early on, later corn).

a lot of pine timberland that housed top knotch deer hunting is also being converted to subdivisions at a frightful pace.

i understand class A farmland in california is being converted to subdivisions. don't know if it's still happening.

foodprices in the future are going to have to be sky-high to pay for those investments plus annual taxes.

of course if money ($$) continues to cheapen, they may be buying a bargain. i don't know.

At what kind of interest and terms will they give you?

Our farm credit wants between 7-8 for a 12-15 year note but they still want 30% down, you can do way better if you want or can borrow on home equity, which isn't as much a gamble if you are buying timberable property that you can turn into quick cash without the risk of losing your home, crop prices are far to violitale to go that route with crop land.

Most use Capitol Farm Credit here.

https://www.capitalfarmcredit.com/products/rates

Timber is just as volatile. Bottoming out now....

You can't. Simple as that, not with conventional commodity crops.

Now, maybe Hemp or some niche crop. Not sure about that. I'd have problems sleeping at night if I had that much in a piece of land, planning to live out of the proceeds, pay for equipment and service the note...

Not me...

DF

Its in the timing, with crops its an every year/ couple of time a year crap shoot, with timber , tornados are the only real threat and that's a pretty low threat, select cutting can keep you up on the payments if its done right, and if you have to wait five years to harvest, well you get that many more board feet, its a win win ! Never is the banker anything but your enemy.

And just how much timber is on "prime Iowa farmland?"

Most of the "farmlands" in my county ARE going at or near $10K per, but they aren't staying farms.
We have maybe two farm families that actually purchase and continue[add] farming land. One recently bought a golf course with a five year plan of reverting it back to pasture. They also recently bought 1/3 of the farm I hunt with a friend that comes back annually to hunt. They paid about $6.5K per on that one for 300+ acres[purchase also included a long term grazing lease on the other 2/3].

"Its in the timing, with crops its an every year/ couple of time a year crap shoot, with timber , tornados are the only real threat and that's a pretty low threat, select cutting can keep you up on the payments if its done right, and if you have to wait five years to harvest, well you get that many more board feet, its a win win ! Never is the banker anything but your enemy."

I'm just saying that it's all a crap-shoot anymore. And agree 100% RE banker/enemy!

You could buy the county I live in for 6.5K per acre, 2-3k per acre for "waste land" , IE farm land reverting back to low quality scrub woods, mostly soft maple, the money is in hardwoods and most of those are being inherited by 20-30 year olds city brats ,after mom and dad pass, they have the amish clear cut it for a one time bonanza and then try and sell it for whatever they can get, you can buy these for 500-800 per acre.
These can be profitable if the landscape allows for a pond and decent reclamation, plant an orchard, build a pond or two and replant with oak, then resell of 4-6 k depending on the size and location.

Most farmland here in my part of North Dakota is going to older farmers for their kids future. They made some money by farming for 50 years or so and can’t get any interest on it. No gamble to speak of in land as it will not disappear. Ed k

The land is not disappearing here its the farmers themselves that are, its go big or go home ! Some of the places sitting empty would break the hearts of those who opened this land up.

No I dont know... because your making this post about stuff it isnt about... the USDA and budgets...

When its about land prices and then easements...

Corn 190/bu average at $3.75/bu = $712/acre revenue for summer crop.

Im not sure about Iowa, but here we winter crop. I have barley in now.

Barley 58/bu average at $5/bu = $290/acre revenue for winter crop.

I asked the young couple who bought our home place if they were sure they wanted to get tied into that much debt. The young husband promptly asked me back when the last time our land had sold. I told him 65 years ago. He said "That's my point!" He wanted his two sons to get into farming and they just won't have a chance to do it the land isn't available. There are about half dozen young couples trying to get into farming in our old neighborhood. With land going for $5,000 - $10,000 an acre I just can't see it happening.

By the way, the young couple who bought our place put up a new house, worth about $300,000 - $400,000 and a couple of new machine sheds. Maybe they found gold or oil or something on that land...?

5 dollar a bushel barley?

That's like a gold strike right there !

No kidding. Near ten dollars a hundred.


Hell of a price.

A 100acre tract near us just sold for $1M. Gone from pasture to somebodies play place. Dude bought a 1/2M $ home next to it while building his own.
There is so much $ out there anymore.......

Then you really are a dumbass. Please stay in Maryland.

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/easements/acep/

A 100acre tract near us just sold for $1M. Gone from pasture to somebodies play place. Dude bought a 1/2M $ home next to it while building his own.
There is so much $ out there anymore.......[/quote

this is the reality of the times we are living in. hard for me to imagine, but not so hard for doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

We have the nature conservancy here, what a cluster f~ck of governmental proportions, they buy farm land, and immediately take it off the tax rolls so the rest of us have to make those losses up, then its the destruction of all of the buildings, including 100 year old barns that are homes to thousands of bats, it the scorched earth method of land ownership, all pond dikes are breached, the fish, frogs and turtles are left to die and rot and the lands are left to regenerate what ever grows there. Its quite repulsive to anyone who understands proper land usage.

Whatcha get for that, about 90 acres?

Farm land anywhere will go for what it's worth for it's growing potential. That is until some large operations have too much money and need a safe place to hide it. That screws it up for us younger independent guys trying to grow.
Different area and different crops, but our farm land goes for $30,000-$38,000 an acre. This is land that designated by our county for AG only. This keeps developers out of the picture.
It's very painful to grow an operation!

Excellent assessment.

I don’t see how growing anything other than maybe cocaine could debt service $38k an acre. That’s just insane

Back from the auction. It sold as two 80's. The west brought $10,600, the east side $9,600.

I bid both up to $8,700. It hurts when your banker beats on you with his shoes!

You folks can put your checkbooks away now!

Depending on where it's at in Iowa , that price is down quite a bit from 2013,through 2015. Good farm land where I live, and it's all good farmland in our area , will go for around $10,000 an acre here now,. Some a little under and some a little higher. At it's peak it was at $14,000 an acre and no shortage of interest. All bought as farm land .
The local banks will finance about 50% The older guys that own outright a lot of ground just look at is as averaging it out with the rest of their ground and gives their kids more land to farm after they are gone. Lot's of this land was bought for $300 to $400 an acre back in the 60's and 70's

Bp

Holy smokes, I'm looking at 100 acres across the road, and thinking the 6K per acre they want is insane.... Two cuttings of hay aren't going to cover that mortgage!

At those California prices, you'd almost have to go full year round production in a greenhouse for something like table tomatoes -- you can do almost 250K lbs of tomatoes per acre per year...... Sounds like a lot of work, and only between 500K and 1MM per acre additional investment in greenhouses.

This farming thing is getting expensive!

Richard, when you wake up tomorrow, I think that you will give a sigh of relief. Best, John

The thing about farming today is that it is extremely hard to say what is and what isn't the answer to long term, not short term, success. Here in my part of the world, tobacco has always been the big cash crop, the one that paid for most everything that grain and livestock could not. It's still pretty much that way. If you're a tobacco grower and have some good contracts, you're making money, and can afford to some degree the volatile situation in the grain market. If you're strictly a grain farmer, you damn well better be a good businessman, or else you're apt to go under. The livestock market has been flat the past few years as well, and most cattle operations are break even propositions, unless they're in a niche market.

Then there is USDA. Most farmers I know will say that they wish the government would get out of farming, but when there is a disaster of sorts, and USDA is handing out money, they're the first in line with their hand held out. I've dealt with them for over 40 years, and consider them a necessary evil. They are not going to get their hands out of agriculture, because a good cheap supply of food is what they are after.....not just for the free food market either, but for the consumer that pays for their food out of their paycheck.

I can't speak for farmers in any other part of the country, but here in my part of Kentucky if you take the Mennonite equation out of it, it is the farmers with the most equity who usually buy land, not some beginning farmer. Those days are pretty much gone, as land prices are just too high, and it's not just land, it's equipment and the input costs as well. It would be extremely hard for some young guy to start out without having someone to help him.

Almonds @ $3.00 a pound @ 2500-3200 pounds per acre.
25-30 year turnover on orchards. About $7500-$10,000 per acre to re-develop. (Extrapolated over 28 yrs)
Not including yearly operation costs.

one or two good marijuana plants per acre will bring in a bit more than an acre of pulpwood on good soil.

but, back to the subject at hand: lot's of the price is now associated with land being a real asset while money is steadily depreciating, imho.

I don’t think some of you people don’t realize the expense involved with crops. Gross sales don’t mean anything. But on the other hand my wife and I just got a check from the government on the farm. It’s was an awesome 152.00 . Yes I did cash it. Lol ed k

Only two things are for sure:
Nothing's cheap and nothing's guaranteed.

We can only get one crop a year. You have to get down to about the Mason Dixon line or a little further south to get 2 crops a year.

Also in the early 1980's I seen guys go under owing $2500 an acre for ground. Of course, they also went into debt for new tractors and equipment borrowing against that ground and their crop. We also had a Jimmy Carter embargo that was not totally resolved by the early 1980's and that hurt too. I understand there are an increasing number of farm bankruptcy's going on right now as well. It's 1982 all over again.

kwg

That is true, although Corn was 2.00 a bushel and made about 140 bu/acre , but the real killer was 20% + interest rates for those guys who had land and equipment financed.

Jimmy Carter was the best learning experience this country ever had, what a f~cking idiot he is !

Generally speaking is land covered with big trees, mostly oaks and other hardwoods, worth more or less than farmland?

The farther.', north you go, the slower growing the trees are, so the density is greatly and so is the wood value, but few owners or buyers care any more, check out the boat builders on Chautauqua lake in the 50's. The best furniture, Pianos and boats were made from the hardwood grown here.

Land in Grundy Co, Iowa was valued at $10,000/acre in 2017. I believe totaled at 158 tillable acres. I know, I sold some of it.

In ten years you might be questioning that sale.

But, if you had any money at all you could put it in a CD for 17% like my father in law did because he was not paying on new expensive equipment and a big new house. He bought everything used, fixed it up and made it work. You can have a CD in the bank or a new tractor that depreciates every day in the barn. It's all about choices. If for some reason the price of fuel and oil goes up and inflation will follow with it along with interest rates. I don't think enough folks plan far enough ahead and it comes back to bite them.

kwg

Where did he find CD's paying 17% rate, the best I can find is from 2.2% for one year and 2.6% for a 5 year, I am not sure if CD's even paid 17% during the Carter inflation years.

drover

I know nothing about barley or what it takes to put a crop in, but the corn would probably have at least $400/acre in input.
Seed, fertilizer, chemicals, cost to put it in, cost to get it out, property taxes, cash rent. Costs me .17/bu to get it to town.
$712/acre sounds fun, but that ain't the end of it a long shot.

The worst I head today, the blood sucking farm "management", outfit has farmers on a 80/29 split! (Blood boiling icon needed!)

80/29 split?

Who gets the 29%?

Should have been 80/20. What a crock!

I had no idea what they charge.

I wondered the same thing. I just assumed that the decimal was misplaced and should’ve said 1.7%.

I’m no Jimmy Buffet (😁) but I don’t recall CD’s breaking 2 digit interest guarantees. I’d sure like to lock in at 17% with no risk....😉

I believe this is referencing interest rates in the 80s. If you ever want to see why old people are rich, check out prime interest rates in the 80s. It's like a payday loan interest today. If you get 15% interest, how can you not get rich?

This was 1982. Interest rates were crazy high. But, if you had money you could buy a CD that paid some really high rates as well. My father in law used to brag it up every so often. I'm pretty sure he left my mother in law a millionaire. Not bad for leaving high school in the 11th grade. He was a pretty sharp guy and could squeeze the crap right out of a buffalo nickel. He had to, he and his wife had 11 kids.

The bottom line was/is, he did not fall for the "it's got to be new and it's got to be the best " line of crap. They lived in a rented 100 year old farm house and his first tractor was an M Farmall and later he added Olivers. His tractors were green but not John Deere green.

kwg

I paid some of that sky high interest back then, I suppose we all did. I did not think long on buying any feeder cattle.

big (large) volumes at lowest (minimum) cost.

allow the niche and specialty producers make money too.

they can target the rich folks who don't live like the rest of us.

You do realize the definition of revenue isnt the same as profit?

Also, I dunno wth your putting out but I was at $228/ac for inputs this year... $400/acre???

EJP1234,

That $228 can not include interest, rent or debt service?

I remember the early 80s in western Ks, neighbors of my dad who were farming were borrowing money to buy lots of land. Interest rates were mid/high teens ( thanks Jimmy).Dad was scratching his head cause “his math” said a good wheat crop could not pay the interest on the loan let alone any principle.
Long story short, the banks took back a lot of that land and dads farm is much bigger now and has been paid off for many years.
And I paid 17% on a home mortgage ( thanks Jimmy).

ol jimmah screwed the pooch for a ton of folks.

and then along came obummer.

what a debacle.

a lesson?

The old story is, say you buy 80 acres. You need %20 cash down, and a clear 80. The two might pay off the new 80.

That is how the banks look at it.