A large farm field on the Cass-Carroll county line sold at auction this week for nearly $8.3 million.
About 716 acres owned by Ben Dillon sold for $11,567 per acre at the Nov. 3 auction conducted by Schrader Real Estate and Auction Co. Dillon has said he intends to use the proceeds to finance production of a machine he invented to expedite harvesting.
Dillon's company, TRIBINE Industries, is building an assembly plant in Newton, Kansas, for the TRIBINE, a combination of a combine and a grain truck. Plans are to start production about two months from now, in January 2016.
The land was offered in eight tracts but sold as an all-in-one piece for $8,282,000, according to the auction company. Schrader Real Estate and Auction Co. President R.D. Schrader said in the press release that in addition to the desirable yields, the contiguous parcels probably attracted extra interest because the land could be harvested efficiently with large modern equipment.
The field, located 4 miles south of Logansport along Indiana 29, was described in auction notices as historically yielding 200 or more bushels of corn per acre.
Carl Carter, a representative of the auction company, said the land went for "a very good price." He added local farmland hasn't changed hands often recently, let alone in large contiguous areas.
Sales data collected by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance indicates other recent sales of agricultural land in Cass County involved smaller parcels which sold for less per acre.
An 80-acre tract near Royal Center sold for about $8,074 per acre in July and in August 160 acres near Twelve Mile was sold for $5,000 per acre.