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Another week of land making the news headlines. 
Move Over Ted Turner - there is a new big time landowner in the United States. The Land Report on Fox Business Newsfeatured Eric O'Keefe of The Land Report discussing John Malone's (Liberty Media CEO) purchase of 1 million acres of timberland in Maine. He bought the largest ranch on the market last year, The Bell Ranch in New Mexico. He started off his land purchases in Colorado in the Rocky Mountains but this last purchase has vaulted him well past Ted Turner for number of acres owned in the USA.
5 Reasons Investors Are Going Crazy For Farmland - from the Business Insider is yet another example of main stream media touting the benefits of owning and investing in farmland. It reminds you that farmland is a long term commitment - no day trading here folks - and then gives you the five reasons. Food demand is rising, Inflation is red hot and farmland is a natural hedge against that, Farmland offers stable returns, Farmland offers portfolio diversification, and last but certainly not least You can get tax breaks for buying farmland. All things farmers already know and apparently things that major business media moguls already know.
International Land Market - still strong - Farmers Guardian in UK reports Farmland proves good value and reports that farmland outperformed equities and all other property assets in 2010. Values increase by 13 per cent and that farmland prices were being driven by lack of supply and lack of quality.
Here we go again on the Farmland Bubble Bandwagon - from Agrimoney.com US land price 'surge' provokes fears among bankers the news cycle just cannot resist the idea of a farmland bubble. While the Fed continues to repeat its mantra that bubbles are difficult to predict and all indications are that debt service is low, blah, blah...anyone else getting tired of this? Values have risen in massive jumps over the last year in many areas of Kansas that haven't seen double digit increases for 10-20 years so are we just catching up with the rest of the country on values or is Kansas headed for a bursting bubble?
Farmland Values and Farm Income Soar - Survey of Tenth District of Agricultural Credit Conditions. The Fed Report was the big news this week. It shows that Kansas rose 19.5% from last year on non-irrigated farmland, 17.6 % on irrigated farmland and a huge 14.3% on ranchland. Ranchland is pasture and although this number is promising the actual numbers in the major Kansas MLS system failed to match those percentages for pasture land. Historically, pasture land has not gained nearly as much as cropland and I think these numbers are inflated somewhat due to the few number of sales. High quality farmland is scare on the market and it only takes a few sales to makes these percentages go sky high.
