The sale of a tract of farmland in northwest Iowa may have set a new state record. Auctioneer Todd Hattermann of Vander Werff and Associates Incorporated, said the 80.5-acre plot sold on Thursday for $21,900 an acre.

He said there were four separate bidders who went over $21,000 at the auction. He did not disclose who the buyer was, but said they were local farmers. He said it is good farmland that had an estimated corn yield of 110 bushels and soybean yield of 43 bushels.

Last December, a 74-acre plot of land near Hull, also in Sioux County, sold for $20,000 an acre. A survey of real estate agents estimated the average farmland value in 2011 was $6,708 an acre.

By Doug Broek, KSOU, Sioux Center

Radio Iowa