SOLD! 115 Acres of Missouri Farmland Smashes the Previous Record

Move over Iowa, there’s a new record farmland sale on the books. A piece of Missouri farmland underwent rapid-fire bidding, which racked the final price tag up to $34,800 per acre. The recent sale now beats out the previous record of $30,000 per acre in Iowa.

According to the bill of sale from Dyer and Fenner Auctioneers, the record sale happened in Saline County, Missouri. Two farmers got in a bidding war, and in just 15 minutes the 115 acres sold for $34,800 an acre, setting the new record.

The buyer wasn’t an investor. The winning bid came from a farmer by the name of Jeff Baxter from neighboring Carroll County, Missouri. According to area farmers, the competing bidder was a farmer with his home farm touching the land that was for sale.

Jim Rothermich of Iowa Appraisal says the bidding started at $15,000 an acre for the piece of ground that had been in the same family for four generations.  “It happened in 15 minutes, and that’s a fast auction,” says Rothermich. “That was rapid-fire bidding. There couldn't have been any hesitation at bidding. It was a fast auction with a more than $4-million deal resulting. There were two bidders, each on a mission that somebody was going to buy that farm, and it all happened very fast.” 

Rothermich says this just proves that if it is high-quality ground—and the buyer has cash—anything is possible. 

“What surprises me is the last time we've seen a record price was November 10, 2022. It was $30,000 an acre in Sioux County, Iowa, and it was 73 acres,” says Rothermich. “I thought that record would last for a couple of years, or at least until we got back to $7 corn or $8 corn. Well, that record didn't even last a year. And not only did we go past it, we blew past that previous record.”

Rothermich says high interest rates haven’t shown up in the land market yet, but he thinks they eventually will, and when they do, he thinks they will impact land prices. 

“The biggest takeaway is the demand for high-quality farmland is unprecedented, and people are willing to pay above market price to get a farm bought," he says. "And the way people need to look at that is their hold period could probably be 50 to 100 years. And those heirs to that property, in 50 years, are going to wonder why they didn't buy more ground at that price. It's a long-term deal."

The new record sale has both positives and negatives. Rothermich points out that people who own farmland near the piece of Saline County ground are experiencing their equity positions on the rise. But the downside is if they're looking to buy more ground, farmland prices could be higher because sellers will look at the recent sale and want a premium price for their ground.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

Once again, we reiterate – “FARMERS/RANCHERS HAVE MONEY! If this isn’t an indication of what we are talking about, then I don’t know what will convince you. A cash sale of $4 million should help make the case. And let us remind you, farmers/ranchers also purchase a lot of farm equipment and TRUCKS! They purchase plenty of trucks every year. Our goal is to help you penetrate and conquest as many of those truck purchases as possible. How? With national ad campaigns, events like AgRally which reaches over 25% of all farmers/ranchers in the U.S. We also partner with top brand companies to allow you to exclusively offer AgPack® with up to $32,000 in potential savings that only CAD members can offer. And now, we’ve added AgTruckTrader.com and the new Pro Rodeo Team to bring additional awareness and the ability to target those farmers/ranchers in your area. Oh, and hopefully you saw the video in last week’s AIR that introduced the new Certified Ag Group mobile app? And there’s more on the way, all designed to help you make more profitable truck sales to farmers and ranchers!