You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
(Left) Daran Becker<br />
watches for bidders<br />
at a land auction this<br />
summer at the Grand<br />
Mound Community<br />
Center. Becker is with<br />
the Indianola office<br />
of Peoples Company,<br />
the firm whose DeWitt<br />
office handled the<br />
auction. It was one of<br />
several this summer<br />
where land fetched<br />
record prices per<br />
acre. (Bottom left)<br />
Peoples Company<br />
auctioneer Jared<br />
Chambers facilitates<br />
the bidding in Grand<br />
Mound where close to<br />
100 people gathered<br />
for a July 20 auction.<br />
<strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong><br />
<strong>Farmer</strong> photoS /<br />
Trevis Mayfield<br />
Setting<br />
Records<br />
Local farm ground prices<br />
ride wave of ag confidence<br />
BY Nancy Mayfield<br />
eastern iowa farmer<br />
The bidding began at 10:17 on a sweltering morning<br />
July 20 at the Grand Mound Community Center.<br />
By 10:24 a.m., Peoples Company Auctioneer Jared<br />
Chambers brought down his gavel to punctuate that<br />
magic word: “Sold!”<br />
And with that, two tracts of farm ground just north of DeWitt<br />
fetched $16,000 an acre, the highest price for land that many<br />
realtors, academics and county officials can recall in recent<br />
history.<br />
After years of anemic growth in land values stifled by depressed<br />
commodity prices, global trade challenges, a pandemic<br />
<strong>Fall</strong> <strong>2021</strong> | <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> 41<br />
<strong>Eastern</strong><strong>Iowa</strong><strong>Farmer</strong>_<strong>Fall</strong><strong>2021</strong>.indd 41<br />
9/15/21 10:23 am
Change language