Let’s lead this off with a bang – the highest recent land auction result in Sioux County was $18,300 per acre for 66.68 acres on October 11th (sold by the Iowa Auction Group). Location was just north of Sioux Center, certainly a prime location in the county for top results. That’s just over $1.22 million. We like to tell folks that $1.2 million is not an unusual amount, you just normally get more acres for it! That brings up the question, how many farms sell for that amount of money or higher? Our database of sale results shows that 22% of the sales of “good” farmland total up to $1.2 million or more. We looked back to our 2012 database (the era of $7-8 corn) and found that 38% of sales exceeded $1.2 million during that year, on very high sales volume. In fact, we tracked considerably more sales results in 2012 than 2018/2019 combined.
Harvest this year is off to a slow start. Normally in our area, soybean harvest kicks off about October 1st, with corn starting shortly after. This year, very little was done by this date, a result of delayed crop maturity from late planting and a mostly cooler than normal growing season. As of this writing in early November, our estimate is that nearly all of the soybeans and about 50% of the corn is harvested in our area. Nationwide 75% of the soybeans and 52% of the corn are done, well behind normal levels. Yield results are generally running about 5%-10% below normal for both crops, although there is a big variation between farms. These results are mostly for crops planted in the late April to mid-May time frame. The jury is still out on the large amount of corn planted in June in the northern portions of our territory that will be harvested in November.
Luke was raised on a grain farm north of Aurelia in Cherokee County, IA. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy from Iowa State University in 2013. Following graduation, he was employed by NEW Cooperative from 2013 to 2019 as a sales agronomist at Palmer and Pierson. He sold seed, chemical, fertilizer, soil sampling and scouted crops. He joined the Stalcup team in August. Luke brings a strong agronomic background with experience ranging from heavy glacial soils of north central Iowa, to wind-blown Loess soils of western Iowa. He is working towards earning his Accredited Farm Manager title with the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.
Advances in technology and management practices are increasing crop yields in the U.S. at an impressive rate. The national 30 year trend line corn yield increases about 1.9 bushels per acre each year on average, and soybean yield increases about 0.5 bushel per year. This growth largely derives from improving seed genetics supplemented with smarter management techniques and equipment technology. Farmers and farm managers utilize more technology each year in a constant effort to maximize production and ultimately profitability, while always protecting the farm’s soil health and environmental concerns.
The Keith Renken family reunion was held in Le Mars this past July. 34 members of Keith’s immediate family and his two brothers’ family members arrived for a farm tour, and a tour of Le Mars including a stop at Bob’s Drive Inn (home of the “Bob Dog”) followed by dessert at Wells Blue Bunny Visitor’s Center and Ice Cream Parlor. The family also enjoyed the Plymouth County Fair. The farm tour was a hit for the family members. “It was a great opportunity for my children and grandchildren to learn more about Iowa agriculture, and it meant more when we could get out and look at corn and soybeans on our own farms,” Keith said. “Kent did a good job of talking about how important livestock production is to Iowa as well as the ethanol industry. Livestock feed provides a demand for corn and soybeans produced on our farms. Manure from livestock operations is used as a fertilizer source for producing the crops and increased the yields to levels we previously had not seen”.
