DECATUR, MI -- Even though one of Southwest Michigan's largest farms was mostly bought up by another large farm at a recent bankruptcy sale, smaller operations will have a chance to pick up some of the pieces, too — at the going rate for prime farmland.
closed Monday, Feb. 25,
, sold in one package
Included in that sale, leases to thousands of acres of land in six counties in Southwest Michigan, all of which will be honored by the new owner, according to an attorney involved in the case.
"I do not have any further details (about the sale)," said Grand Rapids lawyer Laura J. Genovich. "The original leases should be honored," she said, allaying one fear when Stamp Farms LLC filed for Chapter 11 relief on Nov. 30.
But several parcels of prime farmland, as well as buildings, equipment and other farming essentials, will be sold at auctions later this month in Lawrence and Decatur.
Those properties were not part of the bulk sale according to Sid Miedema, owner of Miedema Auctioneering, the company handling the sale, and are associated with Michael Stamp's personal bankruptcy case, he said.
Miedema said the March 27 sale in Lawrence of
is larger than most sales these days when good farmland is in demand.
The land sale paperwork will be completed in time for newly purchased land to be
planted this season, he said.
Amanda Helmer, SEO/ social media specialist for 1800lastbid.com, said the expected price per acre ranges from $3500-$10,000 an acre, depending on whether the land is irrigated and the location of the land.
"Southwest Michigan does not have large sprawling contiguous fields," said Tom Jerdon, a Dowagiac Realtor and farmland landlord who specializes in farm and lake properties.
This sale "opens it to more local farmers rather than just large operations that contain the capital ability to bulk purchase it," he said.
Not much farmland is available for sale in Cass and Van Buren counties, he said. " Farm land is under supplied."
"Generally, there are many misconceptions about farm land values among the non-agricultural community or land owners who have limited knowledge," Jerdon said. "Southwest Michigan has one of the nation's most diverse farm land areas," in terms of soils and range of crops that can be grown, he said, "from fruit in Berrien and Van Buren Counties to seed corn in St. Joseph County, and everything in between, " including specialty crops of every kind. So, some rather high prices paid in an area of one township do not necessarily translate to land a couple of miles away.
Proximity-- whose land the field might abut-- is also a huge factor in assessing value, Jerdon said. "If a next door farmer can merge two fields, then the value to him or her is more than the operator down the road because the addition makes the existing land better when irrigation can be spread across more acres.
Typically, bigger fields bring more than smaller, based on economy of scale for input costs relative to yield, he said. "Soil types, roll, amount of tillable acres, and whether or not the farm has been cleaned up or contains fence rows" are also factors, Jerdon said.
Sale bills listing the land descriptions and equipment to be sold at the March 28 sale in Decatur are being prepared, and will be available soon by clicking here for real estate and here for equipment.