A New Iowa Record Has Been Set After $1.4 Million Farm Sale

Farmland in Iowa continues to set more and more records. Just this week, we saw another state record be broken with farmland over in Plymouth County.

On Monday, 55 acres were auctioned off by Brock Auction Company for a total of $26,250 per acre. This means the total bill for the buyers ended up at $1.44 million.

Looking at the farm plot’s description on the auction company’s website, the field breakdown includes “53.8 cropland acres with a 27.11-acre corn base with a 176 bu. PLC Yield index and a 25.74-acre soybean base with a 53 bu. PLC Yield index.”

According to AgWeb, the bidding started at $17,000 an acre. The bidding rose to $25,000 per acre as three bidders battled it out.

The winning bid of $26,250 per acre went to a local farmer.

This week’s sale now holds the state record for the highest price per acre for farmland, topping an August sale in Sioux County where land sold for $26,000 per acre.

According to the Realtors Land Institute, the value of high-quality cropland in Iowa is $14,472 per acre which is around 17 percent higher than in September 2021.

These high prices are driven by the money potential the land has says Chad Hart, Iowa State University Ag Economist.

It goes back to those high prices that we've got for corn and soybeans. That helps to show that there's a lot still a lot of income potential from agricultural land.

But as we continue to watch farmland prices rise, will we see them go down anytime soon?

As the Federal Reserve looks to continue to wrestle with inflation and their main tool is to raise the interest rate the higher that interest rate grows, the more downward pressure that puts on ag land values and just all real estate in general.

This isn’t the only big sale in the area, back in May, a farm in Plymouth County sold for $25,000 per acre.