Kansas Land Auctions: Dryland Tracts Reach $8,761 Per Acre

A 226-acre dryland tract in Nemaha County sold at auction Oct. 29 for $8,761 per acre, the strongest per-acre price in the latest monthly round of Kansas farmland auction reports. The seller was the Meier family, and Midwest Land & Home of Washington, Kan., handled the sale. The parcel sits north of Seneca, just south of the Nebraska state line.

Submitted reports indicate farmland auctions around Kansas gathered momentum in September and October, with demand holding steady for dryland and pastureland in central and eastern Kansas.

What did the individual sales bring?

The reports cover eight transactions across eight counties:

• Nemaha County. About 226 acres of dryland north of Seneca sold Oct. 29 for $8,761 per acre. Seller: the Meier family. Broker: Midwest Land & Home.
• Clay County. About 116 acres of dryland southwest of Clay Center sold Oct. 23 for $5,215 per acre. Seller: Samantha Hauger. Broker: Midwest Land & Home.
• Seward County. Two circles of irrigated ground totaling about 320 acres northwest of Liberal sold Oct. 22 for $3,750 per acre. The seller was the Crow Family Trust, and Farm & Ranch Realty Inc. of Colby handled the sale.
• Sumner County. About 76 acres of dryland southeast of Conway Springs sold Oct. 21 for roughly $2,224 per acre. The sellers were the Glen Mourning and Joyce Mourning Revocable Living Trust. Broker: Gene Francis & Associates.
• Wallace County. About 1,150 acres of dryland and Conservation Reserve Program land northwest of Sharon Springs sold Oct. 20 in three tracts. Broker: Farm & Ranch Realty Inc. Seller: Gooch Farms.
• Sedgwick County. A 20-acre parcel with a house, pond and outbuildings west of Goddard sold Sept. 30 for $32,000 per acre. Sellers: Chad and Dulce Stone. Broker: Gene Francis & Associates.
• Sedgwick County. A 61-acre pasture northwest of Park City sold Sept. 30 for about $7,213 per acre. Seller: the Robert and Dorothy Brink Revocable Living Trust. Broker: Gene Francis & Associates.
• Pottawatomie County. About 228 acres of pasture north of Westmoreland sold Sept. 10 in five tracts, averaging roughly $3,859 per acre. Seller: the Carol E. Threewit Revocable Trust. Broker: Gene Francis & Associates.

What separated the Seward County irrigated sale?

The Seward County offering carried water rights and energy income that shaped bidding. The package included one well permitted for 413 acre-feet of water at a rate of 720 gallons per minute (an acre-foot equals roughly 326,000 gallons), plus all irrigation equipment except the engine and generator. The seller's mineral interests and gas production rights transferred to the buyer, and existing gas production income proved particularly attractive to bidders.

How did the Wallace County tracts price out?

The 1,150-acre Wallace County sale split into three tracts along an improved gravel road with access to Highway 27:

• Tract 1: 325 acres at $1,700 per acre.
• Tract 2: about 510 acres at $1,600 per acre.
• Tract 3: 320 acres, including about 97 acres of CRP land (the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays rents for land retired from production) expiring in 2031, at $1,200 per acre.

The CRP tract fetched $400 to $500 per acre less than its dryland neighbors, a spread buyers priced against the contract's 2031 expiration.

What do the numbers signal for buyers?

The spread between the top dryland price in Nemaha County and western Kansas tracts near Sharon Springs runs above $7,000 per acre, reflecting the persistent premium for eastern Kansas rainfall and soils. Small-acreage parcels with improvements continue to command outlier pricing, as the $32,000-per-acre Goddard sale shows. Readers can expect the next monthly report to show whether the fall pace carries into winter auctions.