Land prices.

On the south plains of Texas it goes for about $100 for irrigated but you’ll lose your rear growing cotton and peanuts, never mind Milo. And there’s not enough water for corn, even if it didn’t get to hot during pollination.
 
GetTothePoint said:
I hate it but I guess I'm glad it's them and not a developer or solar or something of that nature. I have farmed and ranched my whole life and now work in the AG sector as well. 25K per doesn't work I don't care where you are. I've sat here a moment and tried to find the words to describe the mess of situation we're in and I can't. I have a teenager that I thought one day might try to stay here and carry on but now days I don't know what to tell her. Some days selling out and holding the sand down on a beach somewhere instead of fighting the insanity sounds pretty good.
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That's pretty well said and exactly how many of my friends feel. We are all pushing 70 now and they are just plain getting worn down.
 
KsHusker said:
I'm gonna guess somewhere near Hutch w the Amish comment - ?? Or the general area? I grew up rural SG and Butler county and then lived near Garden after college a bit and now live NE KS -- I bought land here 3 yrs ago and am blown away what it's going for here - I want to buy more here since I live here now or Ford Co, Edwards, Pawnee or parts west.
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My best guess for the land going up so much is due to inflation - It's probably bound to go up more if the US keeps printing money non stop -- Could probably graph this the same way you could graph a barrel of oil to dollars and yes it's went up but if you convert it back to oil to gold - or in this instance - compare gold to the price per acre - ratios probably stayed the same as it was 60 yrs ago -- just an educated guess without doing the graphing. I understand the economics but am horrible at explaining it. Land IMO for the most part can be part of a wealth preservation strategy.
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This….
Gulf Coast Texas farm ground will return about 1% if you don’t have a really bad weather event…. If you want to farm here you lease and put your cash in the bank and make 5%… the long term real estate gains run 4%… still better in the bank unless inflation runs 6%….now if your close to Houston and HAVE farmland you can dump it to some solar outfit for gobs of money ( more than you’ll ever make in ag).
I thought rising interest would do something downward but no joy…. Flattened a little but too much pressure NewGreen initiatives for wind solar and the usual oil buis + expanding residential, urban flight, and 65 yo professionals wanting forty acres of coastal Bermuda…shit looks like grandma’s lawn and wouldn’t hold upland game for squat.
Every benefit a farmer gets everybody that sells to farmers knows about before they do….Section 179 deductions make equipment prices go up, TERP payments only make it worse (program to get old Smokey tractor out of non attainment areas) crop prices get good, land rents go up I frankly don’t know an upper gulf coast farmer that makes money on corn and beans. I’m lucky I grow rice and can get water…rice guys south of me haven’t gotten water in 4 years because San Antonio and Austin need it to flush toilets and stuff.
I can buy a big swath of dirt, but it makes no financial sense and it conflicts with my conservation minded self…. I’d have to mine every lb of minerals out of to get a return that beat my money market account.
So I own businesses that return 15- 30% buy nice farm equipment for the section 179 deductions and work 12 hour days when I’m not sneaking out to pop some birds…
I lease 38000 acres of dirt all over the state for less money than a monthly payment to buy it.
FWIW….. there isn’t an acre of farmland in Texas that you can buy and get a return on investment in ag buisness in the current economic environment.
I have been thinking about buying 6000 or so acres and putting it in a conservation easement …..this can kinda work financially because I have the income to deduct the land value if I could get the right appraisal differential. This may what some of the seemingly stupid land purchases we see are.
I do all that to see this….
 

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UplandJim said:
This….
Gulf Coast Texas farm ground will return about 1% if you don’t have a really bad weather event…. If you want to farm here you lease and put your cash in the bank and ...............................
I lease 38000 acres of dirt all over the state for less money than a monthly payment to buy it.
FWIW….. there isn’t an acre of farmland in Texas that you can buy and get a return on investment in ag buisness in the current economic environment.
I have been thinking about buying 6000 or so acres and putting it in a conservation easement …..this can kinda work financially because I have the income to deduct the land value if I could get the right appraisal differential. This may what some of the seemingly stupid land purchases we see are.
...............
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You live in KS? I'd buy you a coffee/lunch or whatever to learn more about the conservation easement

I've been studying them but don't quite know enough -- a friend of mine is a land manager here in KS and his clients are all pretty wealthy folks that put their money to work here and know how to use the easement system.

Been wanting to do the same -- my goal is 5-20k acres depending on where it is.
 
KsHusker said:
You live in KS? I'd buy you a coffee/lunch or whatever to learn more about the conservation easement

I've been studying them but don't quite know enough -- a friend of mine is a land manager here in KS and his clients are all pretty wealthy folks that put their money to work here and know how to use the easement system.

Been wanting to do the same -- my goal is 5-20k acres depending on where it is.
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Nope, but I’ll be in Tulsa in couple weeks could meet somewhere up your way then
 
I got offered $15k/ac for land that I lease to the farmer for $150/ac. Cannot for the life of me figure out how that works for him.
 
Here locally they are wanting to put in a large solar field. They have locked up about 1000 acres with purchase agreements for $47,000 an acre if the project gets approved. Freaking crazy. Seems insane to me to take good farm land out of production that is 30-50 miles away from large cities versus figuring out how to put solar on top of existing buildings or above parking lots. Still get the energy they are looking for but use land that is already in use for something else. Obviously must be something I’m missing there?

As far as land prices out west there is still an opportunity in some areas for a decent return based on what land is selling for. By decent I would be talking 3-3.5% return in rent/crp payment plus appreciation. Wouldn’t want all my money tied up earning that but a small percentage I can live with.
 
Matt D said:
Here locally they are wanting to put in a large solar field. They have locked up about 1000 acres with purchase agreements for $47,000 an acre if the project gets approved. Freaking crazy. Seems insane to me to take good farm land out of production that is 30-50 miles away from large cities versus figuring out how to put solar on top of existing buildings or above parking lots. Still get the energy they are looking for but use land that is already in use for something else. Obviously must be something I’m missing there?

As far as land prices out west there is still an opportunity in some areas for a decent return based on what land is selling for. By decent I would be talking 3-3.5% return in rent/crp payment plus appreciation. Wouldn’t want all my money tied up earning that but a small percentage I can live with.
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$47K per acre.....they will be able to buy all they want at that price. I agree on finding different places to place these solar units, get creative, they say it costs more in urban setting, well, $47K/acre must even things out a bit.
 
Matt D said:
Here locally they are wanting to put in a large solar field. They have locked up about 1000 acres with purchase agreements for $47,000 an acre if the project gets approved. Freaking crazy. Seems insane to me to take good farm land out of production that is 30-50 miles away from large cities versus figuring out how to put solar on top of existing buildings or above parking lots. Still get the energy they are looking for but use land that is already in use for something else. Obviously must be something I’m missing there?

As far as land prices out west there is still an opportunity in some areas for a decent return based on what land is selling for. By decent I would be talking 3-3.5% return in rent/crp payment plus appreciation. Wouldn’t want all my money tied up earning that but a small percentage I can live with.
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That sounds crazy. I was offered 6k per acre with a 2k sign up. I turned it down. The county south of me has a ginormous solar farm going in. Just getting the power to the power plant will cost millions. It doesn't add up to me! There is no way in hell that's ever going to show a profit. Something very crooked is going on and we are paying for it.
 
birddude said:
That sounds crazy. I was offered 6k per acre with a 2k sign up. I turned it down. The county south of me has a ginormous solar farm going in. Just getting the power to the power plant will cost millions. It doesn't add up to me! There is no way in hell that's ever going to show a profit. Something very crooked is going on and we are paying for it.
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Don’t know if y’all seen what those things look like up close, but down here they pour these little concrete footers about every 10 feet in rows about 40’ apart….i can’t imagine that dirt going back to farmland once the solar craze dies off…. Maybe that will get grown over and make good habitat and we can stub our toes on all those concrete bits one day😀
 
birddude said:
That sounds crazy. I was offered 6k per acre with a 2k sign up. I turned it down. The county south of me has a ginormous solar farm going in. Just getting the power to the power plant will cost millions. It doesn't add up to me! There is no way in hell that's ever going to show a profit. Something very crooked is going on and we are paying for it.
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Was that $6k per acre, per year? !?!?
 
remy3424 said:
$47K per acre.....they will be able to buy all they want at that price. I agree on finding different places to place these solar units, get creative, they say it costs more in urban setting, well, $47K/acre must even things out a bit.
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birddude said:
That sounds crazy. I was offered 6k per acre with a 2k sign up. I turned it down. The county south of me has a ginormous solar farm going in. Just getting the power to the power plant will cost millions. It doesn't add up to me! There is no way in hell that's ever going to show a profit. Something very crooked is going on and we are paying for it.
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I agree. Know it is legit as they offered the family I work for the same offer. We don't believe it makes sense to take good farm ground out so told them no. We own between the proposed field and the transmission lines so they are wanting to negotiate right of way to bring the lines through us. Now keep in mind this is all a long way from coming to fruition and I expect there will be a pretty good fight locally to get it approved. WIndmill project on the opposite end of the county died a fairly quick death 2 years ago. Expect this may go the same way.
 
Wolfchief said:
There is so much unsaid or misstated in SOME of the above posts that I just don't know where to start. WDH, Remy and Tomahawker come closest to getting it right. Anybody who thinks that farming is a gold mine is very sadly misinformed. This big equipment that some think is bought by rich farmers ? A lot of it is financed. Combines on some of the biggest operations can cost anywhere from $500,000 to upwards of $1 million. This machinery DEPRECIATES---and for farmers to keep their landlords happy (planting, harvesting, etc. on time) the farmer must continue to maintain and replace it--whcih costs money!! How would YOU like to buy a Deere combine (used) at $500,000, finance 70% of it--let's see, thats $350,000---pay it off over 5 years at 7% with annual payments being $85,361.18/year...and the payment comes due whether you harvested 130 bu. corn/acre or 230 bu. /acre---and whether you got $6.00/bu. or $3.75/bu. and believe me, it makes a hell of a lot of difference--and that's just payment on ONE machine!! Not to mention the operating money you borrowed for seed, fertilizer, insecticide, fungicide, fuel, repairs etc. And we haven't discussed land mortgage payments or cash rent payments yet. And the farmer has NO control over weather and Government regulations that are always changing and very little control over crop prices because he raises a COMMODITY - #2 yellow shell corn or soybeans so he can't differentiate his crop from the next guy's---that makes him a PRICE TAKER, not a price maker. I worked for FARM Credit from 1974-1985, and was an ag lender /Bank President from 1986-2014. I've counseled farmers, cried with them , been loved and hated by them. I've seen the financial statements, income statements and cash flows in the great years and the downright despicable years---and I know. In many ways it's a racket and certainly NOT a gravy train. But I would rather loan to farmers than make retail loans on washers and dryers and used cars! Don't get me started.....
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Reading thru this whole thread, I'm going to assume the names Rudy Blythe, Toby Thulin. Jim and Steve Jenkins and Ruthton Mn. ring a bell.
 
So i have a friend looking at buying some more ground as a investment with recreation/hunting as a bonus. He was telling me about the ground which is not in a area of good ground. Rolling ground and little top soil think pasture ground. He says the land has been renting for 325 a acre. I said how can they be paying that for that ground? He replied we walked it and there is a lot of gravel. I said exactly but the renter is growing corn not running a gravel pit.
 
Weimdogman said:
So i have a friend looking at buying some more ground as an investment with recreation/hunting as a bonus. He was telling me about the ground which is not in an area of good ground. Rolling ground and little top soil think pasture ground. He says the land has been renting for 325 an acre. I said how can they be paying that for that ground? He replied we walked it and there is a lot of gravel. I said exactly but the renter is growing corn not running a gravel pit.
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That seems nuts. That is getting up there to ground that can raise very good corn rates. Not sure how anyone can pay that to graze it? That ground can be bought in some areas at $2500 an acre. Even at $3000 an acre that is over 10% return on the rental rate. What is he telling you the purchase price of that ground is?
 
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