WItitan2 - 8/26/2017 10:26

I remember the 80s around here there was all the land you wanted for $600 an acre. Poorer stuff was $500. Cash rent was $45. Interest was probably 11+%. Cheaper to rent. I can't imagine land around Moses lake is cheap when you have small pivots to do the corners. The OP is in NW Iowa. I'd be willing to say it has not cashflowed at time of purchase for a long time. Remember, the Pacific Northwest is relatively young as far as being established as a major AG area. Wait until there are 4 generations on the same operation and see what happens to land prices. One thing that is also going to effect land prices is the 1031 land exchanges. We're 45 minutes from a major metropolitan area. There are farmers that are twenty miles closer. They sell by the square foot, and buy any existing farmland just a little further out. Often times getting a 5:1 ratio on the land they purchase. As far as farmers controlling land rents, definitely. The problem is when one guy decides to expand his operation and throws a big number out to landlords for rent, and then everybody thinks their land is worth that. Farmers need to know as the gambler would say - when to hold em, and when to fold em. If every farmer joined together like the NFO, it would work marvelous as far as controlling income as well as input expenses. But our very independence that makes us farm, in the end is our Achilles heel. Land has been a good investment to me, but it has always been too expensive in the beginning, however I've been lucky enough that it did within a couple of years. And in a couple instances, the purchased acres brought along some rented land too. Sometimes, it's a bigger picture. Then once you have a little ground, you have a little leverage to buy some more ground. I purchased a 35 acre parcel this spring and refinanced with it 2 other pieces that I had purchased 8 and 6 years earlier. The payment on all 3 pieces is less than the rent to run it. Would that 35 acre piece cash flow by itself 100 percent financed no, but this way it does. It probably sounds funny to you out where you are at to hear 30- 40 acre parcels getting purchased, but that is considerably more common than quarters being sold. Houses and hunting have destroyed lots of farms, oh, and people from the cities with horses........