The following situation often is faced by absentee landowners who own Missouri forest land. We asked consulting forester John Keesey of Lonedell, Mo. to comment on this type of timber sale. If readers of Green Horizons have comments or questions on this or other timberland value situation, we welcome those thoughts.
The situation: A California couple inherited a northeast Missouri farm with 400 acres of good crop ground and 260 acres of open pasture. The farm also has about 50 acres of timberland on the roughest part of the farm. They will not bemoving to Missouri, and want to sell the property. A realtor has told them they should be able to get $700 to $800 an acre for the farm. However, the wife thinks it might be best to auction the property, dividing the timberland off and selling it separately. She thinks it would enhance the values of both types of land. The realtor has told them the "brushland" is probably worth only $300 an acre even though it hasn't been logged in recent history.
Forester's reply: I need to know what I'm selling and its value before I can make a sound decision on how to handle the sale of this tract. I would hire a consulting forester to make a determination of the amount and value of timber on this tract and other forest-related values. When I have this information, I can decide whether to sell the tract separately or to include it with the sale of the crop and pastureland.
Care should be taken when selling timberland because the price can vary much more than that for cropland or pasture. For example, a 40-acre tract of oak timberland in Iowa sold for $7,150 an acre in 1987.
(Editor's note: A recent professionally conducted timber sale on a south central Missouri Ozark 60-acre tract of oak resulted in $950 an acre on a selective cut. The land with standing timber included would have appraised at only $400 an acre.)