Price of Farmland

[OldMcDonald]

Steve, Thanks for your reply at #11. I was just curious to compare wages. The minimum wag now in Portugal is €475..... wait for it, per month. A very good link at #20 too. I enjoy the fruits of your research. I also participate in an English farming forum and there is a chartered accountant on there who searches out these things the way you do. Very helpful to the rest of us.

Of course young people can start farming now, they have always been able to. The only problem is it has to be your main, and preferably sole, goal in life and you have to start small. Nobody can go out and begin building big numbers of motor cars either can they? Or open a supermarket? All businesses need cash, some more than others, and farming can be started with little and some borrowing, then expand as you prosper, or give it up if you do not.

 

[smstonypoint]

Thanks for the kind words. Working (studying, teaching, research) in ag. economics for 45+ years, you learn about some of the information sources.

Which English farming forum?

Steve

 

[newbury]

An adjoining tract of 11 acres sold for $5500 compared to asking of $7500.

Was that $5,500/acre or total?
When we bought our last 70 acres in 2011 we paid 75 K for a mix of forested Northeast Mississippi rolling hills.

Thread needs pictures:


It won't grow corn at 60 bushels per acre without a lot of work, but the last tree cutting we had yielded about $3K/acre after < 30 years and all we did was plant it. And taxes are low.

 

[randy41]

Using USDA's QuickStats (USDA/NASS QuickStats Ad-hoc Query Tool), 2013 non-irrigated crop rental rates averaged $165/acre in Marshall and $160/acre in St. Joseph. Using the average of the two counties ($162.5/acre) gives a capitalization rate of 1.90% for the land sale. That's very low by historical standards. However, the property in question may have a high yield potential and demand a high rent.

Steve

the capitalization rate is low because interest rates are low. if interest rates were higher the land selling price would be less and the capitalization rate would relatively increase.

 

[Jstpssng]

The cost of food has always been artificially low. People need to conserve money for essentials... i.e. snowsleds, boats, ATVs etc. as the season dictates.
Plus it's much more fun to visit the Mall, than it was to go and watch the cows grazing there...

There are government programs out there to help offset high land prices. Also, many sell off conservation easements.
American Farmland Trust: Resources - A National View of Agricultural Easement Programs

I have my own opinions of this short term view of a long term solution... yet I'm not an economist and there are a lot of things which are over my head.
Besides, somebody once said that the best method of soil conservation is to pave it over and lock the sh-
er, stuff up; he probably made more money for that one stand-up comment than I'll see in my life.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Which English farming forum?

Farmers' Weekly - Farming & Agriculture News from Farmers Weekly Interactive it has become a difficult site to negotiate over the last 18months or so because the magazine either has the wrong people maintaining it, or (like some other UK magazines) they would like it to quietly go away. Very few regular posters now.