(Orange City) — A farmland sale yesterday set a new record for Iowa. The 74-acre tract in Sioux County sold for $20,000 an acre. Iowa State University Extension Farm Management Specialist Melissa O’Rourke says she is always asked the question of whether land can go higher and how high will it go? She says land values can go higher, but as to how high, she says that depends on the circumstances.
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Land values have increased nearly 30 percent over the past year. O’Rourke says most of the land is being purchased by farmers, although other investors are showing interest in obtaining land. She says strong commodity prices, including grain and livestock, have helped boost the land prices. Because of recent years of good farm income, the ISU farm management specialist says many farmers are able to offer cash for the acquired land without additional financing. O’Rourke says simple economics are at play with the higher land values with a high demand and a low supply.
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O’Rourke says agriculture, like other businesses, needs to reduce risk. She says when you own land, you are reducing the risk factor. Many people are wondering if we are seeing a repeat of the 1970’s and ’80s decades when land prices had skyrocketed in the 1970’s, only to see the bottom drop out in the 1980’s. O’Rourke says the major difference between today and that era is that we have much lower interest rates. She says debt levels have been lowered as well.
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Next week Iowa State University will release its annual land values survey.
(LeMars) — A construction accident occured this morning at the new St. Joseph Catholic Church in LeMars. At about 8:45 a.m. a man fell nearly 15 feet from a scaffling platform. The construction worker sufffered a head injury and was transported to the Floyd Valley Hospital. The man’s identity and condition are unknown at this time.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Des Moines Area Religious Council says donations haven’t kept up with the increasing demand, so its food pantry will have to cut back its aid to needy families.
The council will cut 40 percent from the family food boxes.
A family of four had received 55 items in a box each month. Starting Monday, that will be cut to 33 items per box.
In 2010, a dozen Des Moines-area pantries gave food boxes to more than 9,200 families. The number this year is nearing 12,700.
Urbandale Food Pantry director Eileen Boggess says people probably are going to be upset. She says hunger “is an immediate issue. When people are hungry they’re not very pleasant.”
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – U.S. senators from seven Missouri River states are asking the Government Accountability Office to examine this summer’s heavy flooding throughout the river basin.
The request was supported by 13 senators who are part of the Missouri River Working Group. The group includes senators from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South
Dakota.
The senators want the GAO to review several issues, including whether the Army Corps of Engineers followed its master manual for managing the Missouri River and what role meteorological forecasts played.
They also want to know if environmental concerns, such as protecting endangered species, influenced flood-control efforts.
ARCADIA, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa family’s joy over the heart transplant given their 3-year-old son has turned to grief over the death of their infant son in a car crash.
Chris and Emmalee Julin, of Arcadia, had been at Magic Kingdom park in Orlando, Fla., celebrating with their son, Connor. But then they learned that their 2-month-old baby, Chance, was killed in
Saturday’s crash near Breda.
The baby’s godmother, Mary Ann Vanderheiden, had been caring for the boy. She was driving him to his grandparents’ home in Arcadia, about 10 miles from Breda, when her car ran off a county road and into a ditch.
Connor’s transplant occurred March 12. The Make-A-Wish Foundation paid for the Orlando trip so the family could celebrate his new life.
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