Bruce Brock. (KSCJ photo)
A parcel of farmland in Plymouth County has set the record for the most money paid per acre in Iowa.
Auctioneer Bruce Brock of Brock Auction Company sold the ground Monday. “We auctioned off 55 acres of farmland — not development land and it didn’t have any wind turbines aren’t under any undue influence — it was just farmland,” Brock says. “It was between Remsen and Marcus for John Fiscus, and it brought $26,250 an acre, which to this point is the highest selling piece of farmland at auction in the history of the state of Iowa.”
Brock says the new owner of the land farms neighboring ground. “He and his son are going to farm it and they have a farming operation in that area and are really good to high quality farmers and it’s just a great was a great piece of farmland. It laid just perfectly, and of course, right between Remson and Marcus, we call it the gold standard in farming around here. It’s as good as farmland gets,” according to Brock.
The veteran auctioneer says there was spirited bidding for the land. “There were three people that bid up to 25,000 per acre — and then the final two took it up to 26,250 per acre,” he says. Brock has a good historical perspective on the land in the area.
“We have sold one up here, not too far from that one for $25,000 an acre. So it’s in an area where the prices are very strong. But you know, the difference that we’ve seen, my grandfather sold the first piece of farm ground in Ida County for our firm in 1919 for $60 an acre, and we’ve seen every price increase all the way up to this one,” Brock says.
Brock says the competitive bidding gives everyone a sense of fairness and the farm brought what the market was willing to pay.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)