Williams may convert it to wildlife habitat. "I think we have an obligation to do what we can for the environment."Ĭrops often don't grow well on part of the land that Williams bought. "Maybe you put pollinators there," he says. ![]() Williams says he's willing to stop farming that land. The soil there is too often wet, despite underground drainage pipes. The company told Williams that it probably isn't worth trying to grow crops on a low-lying part of the farm close to the river. promotes itself as an environmentally conscious farm manager, and when it advised Ray Williams on his land purchases, it carried out a "profitability analysis" of the land, adding up the cost and the revenue from each acre. "They talked me into it, I guess," he says.Ĭhanges are about to arrive, and in this case, at least, they could be good news for Iowa's water and wildlife. But his sons wanted to sell, because it's inconveniently located 20 miles from his "home place" and the rest of his land. "After 50 years, I know this farm pretty good," he says. Today, at 74, he's still farming with his three sons. This was the first land that Rich bought when he began farming, with his father's help, in 1975. Records at the Butler County recorder's office show who owned each parcel of land since the 1850s. "We're going to have an incredible shift in value over the next five to 20 years." "Right now, over 80% of the farmland in the country is owned by somebody 55 or older, and roughly half of 75 or older," Muth says. Muth is a partner with Alternative Equity Advisors, which is affiliated with Peoples Co., a Des Moines-based land broker. Similar deals are likely to happen on a massive scale in the coming years, according to Dave Muth, who helped Ray Williams sell and buy his farms. ![]() Their decisions will have profound effects on rural communities, wildlife and even the global climate. The new owners will decide what happens to that land, whether to plow or drain it, or even to stop farming it entirely. ![]() The end result: Control over this land has passed to people with little personal connection to it, who live a thousand miles away. He bought 293 acres in Butler County, Iowa, from a farmer named Rich Showalter, and another 160 acres in O'Brien County from the estate of a woman who was born in Iowa but died in Indiana at the age of 100. WANT PROPERTY DATA? API or bulk file delivery available for businesses interested in the commercial use of property data - Learn More.This left Williams with a pile of money to invest, and he parked almost $3 million of it in farmland halfway across the country. If the "verified." The data on this page may not be harvested, scraped or used for anything other than viewing on the Connected Investors domain. Estimated property values are: (i) based on available data (ii) are not guaranteed or warranted (iii) do not constitute an appraisal and (iv) should not be relied upon in lieu of an appraisal.Ĭonnected Investors does not represent or warrant that the information is complete or free from error, and expressly disclaims any liability to any person or entity for loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the report. This information: (i) is not an insured product or service or an abstract, legal opinion or a representation of the condition of title to real property, and (ii) is issued exclusively for the benefit of First American & Connected Investors customers and may not be used or relied upon by any other person.
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