Martin Family Farms

Martin Family Farms 2011 Video

Here is the link to our 2011 video. http://youtu.be/mvVUlvsg_lU

Merry Christmas From Our Family

Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours

Another Land Sale...

This past weekend we had one of the few land auctions that we have had in the area this year. Just by walking in the door you could tell that the interest and curiosity was there. I can remember several years ago we had a landlord go to an auction and she was the only one that showed up and she bought the farm. I do not think that would happen in todays market with well over 100 people in attendance this past weekend. However most of the people are just curious to see how much it will sell for there were only 1-3 bidders on each tract of land. Here is what they sold for

Tract #1 80 acres mostly class A soils but needed some major drainage work done to it sold for $8500/acre. Tract #2 - 20 acres with all class A soils brought $9300/acre. Tract #3 - 40 acres which had mostly class B soils sold for $8600. and Tract #4 112.7 acres (93 tillable) which was considered a class C farm sold for $7100. For the most part I would say those are pretty strong prices for ground with todays prices.

We are waking up this morning to the biggest rain we have had in several months. Most of the area around here had about 1"-1.75" of rain. I actually saw a mud puddle and had water standing in the driveway last night. This is a critical rain now before the ground freezes. The dry ground will soak it all up pretty fast but having the moisture in the topsoil with help the ground "mello out" from all of the freezing and thawing during the winter. This has officially put an end to all of the fieldwork for the winter and now we will focus on the year end bookwork and trying to empty some grain bins in the next few weeks. We have another farm sale this weekend so check back next week for what it sold for.

This time of year is usually when we begin our slower time of the year, but now a days it just means the transition from field work to something else. The past week we have been doing some odd jobs that we can get done before it gets too cold out. We have also been able to get in some deer hunting and even got the christmas tree up early this year.
I did go to a land sale this past week in Lincoln, Il . The land had pretty good soil types ( lot of sable & ipava) and sold in 5 different tracts with the best farmable tract selling for $9218/acre and the lowest was $7400/acre. The average was $8857/acre which is pretty close to what some of the better farms have been selling for in our area this fall. There has not been a lot of land sales, but there are a couple of auctions coming up in the next month and we will keep it updated here on our blog.