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| This was 10 years ago and it sold for well under market value.Anything with a decent house on it to the north of them still sells poorly or takes forever to sell..Bare land sells much better.Murphies are one of the few that will bid on property there.Very-very few one want to live down wind from well over 100,000 sows.Even their farm manager moved away.
7-8 years ago a 320 acre farm in the middle of it only brought $400-500 per acre when elsewhere it would have brought $700.All the people that lived in that area were there long before Murphies came there.This is a very rural area near no towns and there are no big city dwellers moving in.I'll guarantee you that 95-98% of the people on here dont want to live just to the north of a CAFO!Most farmers worst fear around here was a CAFO coming near them.I know one guy that bought 640 acres near him when he found out that Murphy test wells were being drilled.Murphies lowered the water table for miles around and lots of wells went dry.They never offered to pay for deeper wells.
The area farmers fought them the hardest.They often had 300-500 at meetings.The farmer with 640 acres right in the big middle of it spoke at meetings all over MO.He and his group stopped Murphies from coming to the Urich,MO area after they already had land bought.When he retired he got out of there and only lived one more year as cancer got him..He refused to sell to Murphies and sold to a real estate agent for less money.After Gene died the real estate agent almost doubled his money on it as Murphies were dying to own it to tie several sow farms together.
If you guys will put your hog barns just to the south or southwest of your house lots will back you 100% on it.That shows everyone that you believe in what you are doing.I can drive you all over this area and show you Murphy pig barns that arent south of the owners house.I wonder why?
Just remember its location,location,location.Have an open mind when visiting with neighbors that will be down wind from your operation.Before Murphies came to this area everyone put their hog barns near their house and there were no problems..Ours was 150 ft west of our house.I farm and live in the country to smell clean fresh air at least 95% of the time..I and others dont appreciate our clean air being violated by a neighbor that didnt want hogs to the south of his place.He can have a picnic in his yard anytime he wants.The only people that dont mind hog smell are the ones making the money from it.Thats just a fact of life and its going to get nothing but wose.
NZ dairy farmers are coming to this area now and one recently paid double the market price for land 2 miles to the west of me.They are running 550 cows on 560 acres.20 miles to the NE of me there are 3000 cows on 4000 acres.They are doing a good job controlling the odor and there are no problems so far.Both are in excellent locations.There are only 3 small dairy farms left here and 3 small hog farms.Everyone else went out of business in the past 20 years.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do.Our nation needs more young hog farmers.I'm not down on you but you are going to face an uphill battle as our nations population fastly rises.You may have to move to a sparesly populated area.
Edited by 1206SWMO 4/19/2007 14:07
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New proposed livestock laws in Iowa
