Top 10 Stories of 2022: $30,000 Per Acre? Yep, The Details on the Latest Record-Breaking Farmland Sale

AgWeb is counting down the top 10 stories of the year. At No. 5, is the news of another record for farmland sales. In Sioux County, Iowa, 73.19 acres sold for $30,000 per acre at a Nov. 11 auction.

$30,000 Per Acre Iowa Farmland Sale
$30,000 Per Acre Iowa Farmland Sale
(AgWeb, Zomer Company)

Not to sound like a broken record, but we have another record for farmland sales. In Sioux County, Iowa, 73.19 acres of high-quality farmland sold for $30,000 per acre during an auction on Nov. 11. That equals a total sale cost of $2.195 million.

That’s right, there is now a $30,000-per-acre club in Iowa.

A local farmer was the buyer, and the runner-up was also a farmer, according to Jim Rothermich of Iowa Appraisal.

“I cannot explain these recent price records,” he says. “The price was negotiated in minutes. I have no explanation for the sudden lurches in these new records.”

The farm contained 72.49 tillable acres with the balance in road and ditches. It has a corn base of 38.19 acres with a PLC yield of 172 bu. per acre, and a soybean base of 38.19 acres with a PLC yield of 56 bu. per acre.

The sale was by Zomer Company Realty & Auction.

This latest high-dollar sale follows several other recent ones. On Oct. 27, around 116 acres of southeast Nebraska farmland sold for a record $27,400 per acre.

Also in October, a 55-acre far in Plymouth County, Iowa sold for $26,250 per acre. That means the total bill was $1.44 million.

Rothermich predicts auction activity will be very brisk over the next 30 days. Stay tuned to see if any top $30,000 per acre.


Here are the other stories that made the top 10 on AgWeb in 2022:

No. 1: Young Farmer Makes History, Uses Video Games and YouTube to Buy $1.8M Farm

No. 2: Weeks Apart, Farmer Kills Two 6’-plus Timber Rattlers

No. 3: Tax Court Rules Farmer Can Use Old Tractors

No. 4: Rancher’s Stunning Indian Artifact Find Brings Past Alive

No. 6: Fertilizer Prices Just Fell 30% in One Day, Farmers Saw Prices Skyrocket 133% in a Year

No. 7: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

No. 8: China’s Latest Land Purchase Could Pose Major U.S. Security Risk

No. 9: Survival At All Costs – Rancher Escapes Hay Baler Tomb

No. 10: American Truckers Lose a Prince of the Road

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