Marginal land value

poor farmer

A farm 40 acres has come up for sale which adjoins an outlying farm that i own
Its just bare land .The farm needs a lot of work.
Anyone care to put a value on it.

bob charles

dry/wet whats your take on marginal. decent soil, cropping land, rough mountain

poor farmer

heavy clay, sloping but not steep , grazing only , fields 2 acres approx ,poor location ,bad access,

bob charles

3k might be too much for what you describe, cheap bad lad can still be too dear

about 3 fity

ye i agree about 3k an acre sounds plenty. if you run into bother with an auctioneer who wants to value the land at 4.5k an acre and take out all costs involved in cleaning it up and work your way back down to 3k an acre

Jack180570

If the land can be planted then forestry is likely to pay more like 3.5k ac for it... sounds ideal for forestry as long as its not in a Hen Harrier SPA... forestry is paying €174 ac premium for land planted with spruce and then the chap that buys it can buy entitlements and draw both the forestry premium and entitlements on the planted land... even with average entitlements of €270/ha this will give him €280 ac/yr.... if he bought entitlements of €310ha he would have €300 ac/yr income... not bad?!

about 3 fity

Jack180570 wrote: »

If the land can be planted then forestry is likely to pay more like 3.5k ac for it... then the chap that buys it can buy entitlements and draw both the forestry premium and entitlements on the planted land..

i don't think 3.5 is the right value seen as the access is bad, most clever investors now realise the importance of hassle free timber extraction and are becoming wise to it at day one. i wouldnt be advising anyone about the entitlements issue you mention either because nobody knows for sure what way the entitlements are going to change

Jack180570

about 3 fity wrote: »

i don't think 3.5 is the right value seen as the access is bad, most clever investors now realise the importance of hassle free timber extraction and are becoming wise to it at day one. i wouldnt be advising anyone about the entitlements issue you mention either because nobody knows for sure what way the entitlements are going to change

You could well be right that 3.5k is not the correct value.. to an extent it depends on how bad the access is... government also provide road grants to forestry so if it a case that the bad access is a case of the road needing to be upgraded then it may not be a huge problem.

Regarding the entitlement situation the current position is that land on which entitlements are being drawn that is now planted under the Afforestation Scheme is deemed to be 'eligible land' and the owner is entitled to receive both forestry premiums and entitlements on the land. I know a number of farmers who have planted in the last number of years who are drawing both. In fact one chap had low value entitlements on the land when it was planted and he has since sold them and bought higher value ones and is getting paid them.

I agree that nobody knows what way the entitlements are going to go but its going to be the same for both farming land as forestry land (since both are deemed by the EU as eligible land).

about 3 fity

Jack180570 wrote: »

if it a case that the bad access is a case of the road needing to be upgraded then it may not be a huge problem.

Regarding the entitlement situation the current position

I agree that nobody knows what way the entitlements are going to go.

if it had direct road access then it wouldnt be bad access. with the grants for roads cut, the new planning procedures and longford county council (soon to be more councils) now requiring tar to be applied to the first few metres of the road....im not sure your considering the potential problems with bad access. the logic at the moment is road grants will be nowhere near as generous in years to come, so it is best to only plant investment forestry nowadays with a plan B for getting timber out.

regarding entitlements its not just a debate about forestry eligibility its also about reference years and the like, which is where there could be a danger in the purchase of land for planting (sale sites are often unfarmed for a while before being sold)