BEATRICE- The Southeast Community College Board of Governors approved an increase in the farm lease, to $100,000 at their March meeting that exceeds market value by more than $25,000.
According to Leon Lovitt, farm manager for SCC-Beatrice, the SCC Foundation owns approximately 676 acres in Gage County, and the college itself owns approximately 84 acres.
Lovitt continued, saying approximately 260 acres are pastured land, 381 acres are dry cropland, and 44 acres are irrigated crop ground.
Lovitt said some land adjacent to the college, according to Lovitt, is renting at $120-130 per acre, and the college rents 30 acres of pasture and pays approximately $30 per acre.
Kelly Lenners, financial officer at Farm Credit Services of America, says the price of an acre of farmland heavily relies on what kind of ground it is.
“There is a wide variety of price or value per acre, depending on whether you’re talking about pasture ground or irrigated ground,” Lenners said. “Irrigated land is going to be worth more, pasture is going to worth less.”
According to the University of Nebraska- Lincoln Extension, the average rental rates for dry-land cropland in southeast Nebraska for 2010-11 was $142 per acre, averaging $54,102 a year for 381 acres.
Irrigated cropland is renting at an average of $236 per acre, making the average rent for 44 acres $10,384 per year.
Pasture land is renting at an average of $34 per acre, resulting in $8,840 a year for 260 acres.
When adding these figures together, the average rent, according to data presented by the UNL-Extension, would be $73,326. The 260 acres plus 381 acres include all waterways, Westfork building sites, roadways and more.
UNL-Extension office also reported a 22 percent increase in Nebraska’s agricultural land values, in part due to a “high income conditions for the state’s crop sector over the past few years.”
Dry land cropland value, according to UNL-Extension, increased to 22.4 percent in the last year. Irrigated cropland increased 19.8 percent in the last year, center pivoted irrigated cropland increased 20.1 percent and pasture land had an increase of 6.3 percent.
The farm lease, as of 2007, was renting for 29,909.42. In 2007, 160 acres of land was added and, in 2008, rent increased to $41,688. In 2010, the lease was at $45, 856 a year.
The farm lease and 25-cent fee increase, also approved at the March meeting, will generate $210,000 a year for the Foundation’s operational funds.
The SCC Foundation and the college are separate entities but have a unique partnership.
The SCC Foundation, according to the SCC website, is a non-profit organization created in 1971. After its formation, the Student Scholarship Program was founded and has raised over $5 million in scholarships since it’s inception.