Appraising Farms in Kentucky

By mistake, I used a half-caff pod in our new Keurig coffee pot yesterday afternoon. Hence this early morning post about appraising farms in Kentucky. When appraising a farm, the most important characteristic to consider is the potential yield. Calculating the potential yield for a variety of crops is a fairly simple process. Simply go the the Web Soil Survey web site and define a study area using their polygon tool. Use their vegetative productivity tool to calculate a soil types map and crop rating. As a demonstration, I’ve selected a random tract of land in Hardin County, Kentucky. Here is the soil types map for non-irrigated tracts using the number of bushels of corn per acre:

The Web Soil Survey results include an accompanying chart that provides the anticipated yield (rating) for each soil type in corn bushels per acre. The chart for this tract is provided below:

Using this chart along with a spreadsheet enables me to calculate the average soil rating for this farm. Here is the spreadsheet for this tract.

As the chart shows, the weighted average overall yield in corn I could expect would be approximately 154 bushels per acre. Calculating the yield for each of my comparable sales I would be able to extract a percentage adjustment based on the difference in the weighted average yield. To demonstrate, I’ve included a chart below that I used in a recent appraisal.

The chart displays the difference in the weighted average potential yield for each tract, relative to the subject property. Sale number one should yield 1% more corn, Sale number two should yield 10% less, and so on. Thus, adjustments to the sales should be -1%, +10%, and +7%.

If you’d like a copy of the weighted average crop yield spreadsheet or need help using the Web Soil Survey site, shoot me an email or pick up the phone and call. I’ll be glad to help.