(Ripe ear of field corn - KIWA Staff Stock Photo)O’Brien County, Iowa — A recent land auction in O’Brien County delivered extraordinary results as bidding escalated through multiple rounds, topping out at $21,300 per acre for prime agricultural land.
The Thursday (November 5th) sale, conducted by Vander Werff & Associates, featured seven distinct tracts of farmland boasting exceptional CSR2 (Crop Suitability Rating) values, with three of the offerings also featuring wind turbine installations. According to auctioneer Shannon Rydberg, the structure of the sale provided prospective buyers with the rare flexibility to bid on individual parcels or combine tracts across the entire property offering.
“Last week’s auction generated a unique circumstance,” Rydberg noted, adding that several interested buyers entered the sale specifically seeking a single quarter-section of land, with the featured Sampson property standing out as what she calls, “the best of the best.”
What set the auction apart, says Rydberg, was the unusual progression of competitive bidding across successive rounds:
- Round 1: Bidding opened at $21,100 per acre, with the winning bidder selecting Tracts 1 and 3.
- Round 2: Prices rose to $21,200 per acre as a buyer secured Tract 5.
- Round 3: Bidding climbed further to $21,300 per acre for Tract 2.
- Round 4: Prices held strong at $21,300 per acre, with the buyer taking Tracts 4 and 6.
Ultimately, a single buyer purchased Tracts 1 through 6 in their entirety.
The final parcel of the day, Tract 7, brought $16,000 per acre and was purchased by a young neighboring farmer to round out the sale.
According to several published sources, the record price for farmland in Iowa is $32,000 per acre. The sale occurred on December 1st, 2025, for a 35.51-acre tract of prime farmland in Sioux County, northwest of Orange City.
While last week’s land sale did not bring a state-record price for farmland, O’Brien County continues to have the highest countywide average value in Iowa. At the same time, Sioux County land tends to claim the all-time peak sale prices for individual sales, thanks in part to Sioux County’s dense livestock industry.
