I attended a farm auction in Clark County Ohio last weekend for a client and thought I would share some of the details. 

The Elcamere Farm was a 1300-acre (mostly contiguous) farm in Harmony Township that has been in the same family for more than two centuries. A man named John Nicholson immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1783, and eventually started Elcamere Farm in the newly-created state of Ohio in 1806. John’s son Andrew Nicholson actually bought and cleared the land for the farm. Elcamere Farm grew over the years, and stayed in the Nicholson family the entire time.

John Nicholson’s great-great-granddaughter, Ann Wilson, was the last family member to own the farm. She and her husband, Brooks Wilson, live in Sydney, Australia, and visited the farm each year; Ann grew up in nearby Springfield, Ohio, and spent her childhood on the farm, raising sheep and cattle. More than fifty years ago, Ann’s father hired Charles Penrose to run the farm, and Mr. Penrose, now 85, did so faithfully until this year, when he was no longer able to keep up the demands of running a large commercial farming operation. (Mr. Penrose’s family was given a portion of the land prior to the auction.)

Ann Wilson decided to sell the farm after Mr. Penrose was no longer able to run it, and the property attracted notice from all over the country. Local auctioneer/realtor Jeff Harvey had almost 300 buyers in person at the auction on November 2, (myself included) in addition to Internet buyers from as far away as Germany. –I also heard that there was some Venezuelan money floating around the room too.  They split the farm into 14 individual tracts.  In the end, the farm was divided into several block tracts, selling for a total of $5,052,000 – $3886 per acre!  This was mostly high quality dirt but there were some wet spots and trees.  (1135 tillable.) I can tell you that the buyers did very well and were lucky that commodity prices are so depressed and the economy is in bad shape because this farm should have brought $4250 to $4500 per acre in my opinion.   

The largest section of Elcamere Farm will remain in agricultural production; other sections will be used for housing development. Ann Wilson was pleased with the amount the farm brought, but admitted it was a bittersweet moment, telling local press that “It’s not just the farm, but it’s my whole childhood.”

There aren’t many farms like Elcamere around anymore; most large parcels in this area have already been split up and sectioned off long ago. Still, it was remarkable to be there for the end of an era in family farming.  I am also happy to let you know that all the buyers were local farmers and/or at least local residence of the area.

The Associated Press reports that California will be cutting its 2009 commitment for water deliveries to a near-record low of 15 percent of the amounts requested by local water agencies throughout the state. The last time the state Department of Water Resources scheduled deliveries at this low a level was 1993, and in that year heavy rains allowed the department to deliver full allotments despite the low quota; if this year’s schedule holds up it will be the lowest level of delivery since California began state water projects in 1962.

Farmers are already chafing under the low delivery provided in 2008, when the state delivered only 35 percent of the amounts requested by local boards. Central Valley farmers report they intend to leave many fields unplanted, with one fourth-generation Kern County farmer saying he will have no choice but to leave 1,000 acres of his 5,000 acre operation fallow in order to conserve water for permanent crops like cherry and almond trees.

California’s state water projects deliver irrigation water for 750,000 acres of farmland throughout the state. In recent years, deliveries have suffered even after heavy precipitation because of court orders restricting water pumping for environmental reasons. A wet winter could provide more waters directly to farmers, but will not impact the court orders in place, leaving farmers in quite a bind.

Governor Schwarzenegger has called for building more dams and finding ways to funnel water around the protected area to bypass the court-ordered restrictions, but has had little luck in securing legislative backing for his proposals. Local officials say that if the water problem continues, there could be substantial layoffs in the agricultural sector, with even long-term workers being forced to leave the agricultural regions of California in order to find work elsewhere.

 

Previous post on this water issues facing farmers below:

August 21, 2008: Water for Ag Use, Change is Inevitable

August 15, 2008: Water – 80% to 90% of Global Freshwater Used for Irrigation; Sustainable?

August 6, 2008: Water – Agriculture and Changing Weather Patterns

July 30, 2008: Water – US Farmers, Count Your Blessings

July 23, 2008: Water - The Next Farm Crisis