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Gann Valley, SD | I grew up in Buffalo County SD. In Dec 1991 I was a kid but still have a newspaper ad of our calf sale that year. Our top pen of black-baldy steers weighed 600 lbs and brought $1.02/LB. One of those steers could have bought 2 acres of farmland or 3 acres of local pasture at the time.
Today some local farmland brought $3,600. It presently takes like 4 steers to buy one acre. It presently takes $32,000 to buy the average/normal of 10 acres to summer the cows and the requisite 4 acres it takes to winter them. Green left our grass last June and it will next turn green when/if the weather ever changes. We could as well be the surface of the moon.
This time next year it might take $64,000 to own the land that it takes to run a cow. That's because it might not rain for squat and drought doesn't seem to slow up land bidding wars.
For $32,000 you get to sell a $900 calf if it don't die and you paid your vet bill and kept up your fence. Meanwhile you can buy a $32,000 house in a local town and rent it for $500/month pretty easily. Demand for houses in this area makes it easy to be picky on who you want to rent to.
I really wish I knew what folks are thinking. Maybe they reckon cattle are cheap and they will catch up with land? Heady days!!
Edited by Kaw' Liga 11/8/2012 23:22
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Fun facts and figures about land values in my area
