Contiguous Illinois Farm Brings Strong Sales Price
- Brooke Bouma Kohlsdorf
- Feb 27
- 3 min read
A 430-acre farm, located about 15 miles northeast of Springfield, Illinois, sold in a private transaction on January 29th for $7,224,672. While the $16,800 per-acre figure was considered strong for the area, the agent who handled the sale says the defining factor behind the competitive price was not just yield history or infrastructure — it was contiguity.
“All 430 acres are in one contiguous tract,” said Max Hendrickson of Farmers National Company, who listed the farm alongside Thadd Fosdick.
“Being able to put that many acres together all at once is big. A lot of investors have a hard time assembling that much land in one location,” Hendrickson said.
Contiguity Commands Attention
As estates are divided and parcels sold off in pieces, opportunities to purchase 400-plus acres in a single block have become rare.
That scarcity played directly into this sale.
The farm includes 413.53 acres of tillable cropland, with 14.22 acres in waterways and 2.29 acres in a building site. According to its 10-year Actual Production History (APH), the farm averaged 245 bushels per acre for corn and 80 bushels per acre for soybeans.
While those yield numbers are solid for the region, Hendrickson said the scale and layout of the farm elevated buyer interest.
“When you’re in the $5 million-and-above range, it’s a good investor-size property. They will pay to have a contiguous tract,” Hendrickson said of the land’s appeal.
For investors and operators, contiguity offers measurable advantages: fewer field entrances, streamlined input application, simplified lease management, and improved efficiency during planting and harvest.
Competitive Market Conditions
The property was listed in late September during a period when multiple farms in the area were on the market simultaneously. Recent comparable sales shaped buyer expectations. One nearby auction brought $16,650 per tillable acre, while another tract sold in the $14,000 to $15,000 per acre range.
“We had a ton of calls,” Hendrickson said. “But a lot of local buyers were looking to break it up.”
Dividing the farm into smaller tracts may have attracted additional local interest, but it would have required a survey and introduced marketing risk in an already crowded environment. Instead, the sellers opted to first pursue a single-buyer strategy that preserved the farm’s full 430-acre footprint.
The approach ultimately attracted an out-of-area investor who had recently divested other farmland and was seeking to reinvest. Three investors with 1031 exchange funds also expressed interest.
The farm sold for $16,800 per gross acre, or approximately $17,500 per tillable acre, a figure Hendrickson described as “fairly strong” and above several recent comparables.
Land’s History
The property had been owned by the same family since the 1940s and held in a long-term trust. For at least 20 years, it was leased to the same tenant. The farm will be lease-free for the 2026 crop year, giving the new owner flexibility in structuring future rental agreements.
Infrastructure on the property includes a 50-by-100-foot machine shed, a 30-by-50-foot corn crib, and three operational grain bins — two with 10,000-bushel capacity and one with 20,000-bushel capacity — providing on-site storage and operational support.
Grain marketing logistics also add long-term value. RCM Cooperative is located two miles east of the farm. It’s also in the process of developing a rail shuttle facility.
Economic Context
The sale comes amid mixed signals in the agricultural economy. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s AgLetter, farmland values in the Seventh District rose 6% in 2025 after a slight decline in 2024, while credit conditions tightened and repayment challenges increased.
Hendrickson said outcomes continue to vary significantly by location.
“Sales prices are a mixed bag,” he said. “It really depends on location. It varies from township to township and even section by section.”
In this case, strong soils, consistent yields, infrastructure and most importantly, the size of the tract, supported the sales price.
