Where's the best place in the US for good, cheap farm land?

Question

So, I've always wanted a farm. To me, there's nothing more satisfying than creating something with your own two hands and enjoying the fruits of your labor. I want to be as self-sufficient as possible - chickens, a few cows, goats, and sheep, as well as growing some basic veggies to eat and sell off the surplus at a farmer's market. I'd like to be as organic as possible.

The main issue is cost. I know that land is expensive and farming isn't the most profitable business. I'd like to know of any suggestions for inexpensive farmland in the US. A place where the land is good, and hopefully cheap. I'd like to spend no more than 30K for 10 acres, and hopefully less for more. Any help? Thanks!!

Answer 1

They're selling land just as good as any agricultural land in the US in the Brazilian cerrado for only $100 an acre

Answer 2

** I just saw in Craigslist (Fresno, Ca.) (and hear about around town from time to time) a large parcel of land being sold over thousand acres, and was being sold in 10 acre parcels for about 1,000 an acre.  It was somewhere around here in the Central Valley of California (San Joaquin Valley) It is all usable land, just barren grass foothills, (rolling hills of foxtail's) A old oak here and there.  If you are looking for cattle, horse land this would work, or even oranges, or grapes.  The cheapest land you will find anywhere will be far away from civilization, the further the cheaper.  Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado are real cheap, if you don't mind mountain snow, and dirt roads to get to your land.  Also the Midwest, prairie land, is next to nothing, if you don't mind being literally around "nothing"!..lol.  Swamp/Wooded areas in Northern Florida, Alabama, and Georgia are still reasonable, but in a few years won't be,(people are getting hip to this area already).  Its just going to take a little research on your part, and time....Its out there though, you'll find it!**

Answer 3

Here's a few things to consider.  Any place with a mountain view is going to cost an arm and leg as will small "farmettes" within driving distance of large cities.  The land that doesn't get adequate natural rainfall to grow corn and soybeans (high plains states, not Illinois or Iowa) and has unpleasant climate such as long cold winters and hot dry summers (North Dakota, eastern Montana) is going to be less expensive as well.  However, those limitations will also limit your ability to do what you want to do.

In more arid areas, access to water is vital and the California land the other poster described may have no water on it.  Then again, it could have the most beautiful stream flowing though it but if the seller retains the water rights, you have no right to use any of that water because someone else owns it.  In dry areas, by all means check and make sure the seller owns the water rights and that they will be transfered with the land to the buyer.  In places like western Colorado, the water rights can be more valuable than the land itself because without water, it's nothing but desert.

Wherever you look at, keep in mind that land with frontage on a paved road is going to be worth more than something on a gravel or dirt road.  

Landlocked tracts (land without road frontage and surrounded by land owned by someone else) are entitled to access either by purchasing land from the other landowner or by easement for a driveway.  If there is already an easment, make sure it's transfered with the property.  Easments can be forced on the other landowner, but it's an expensive legal procedure and can result in hard feelings and hard feelings with a neighbor can be a problem that never goes away.  In addition, the other landowner may be forced to give you an easement for a driveway, but he does not have to give you one in the place you want or in the place easiest for you to gravel and turn into a road.  He can always give you a place that will cost a fortune to build a road.

Also keep in mind that buying a cheap, remote tract of land can cost a fortune in getting electricity to it, a sewer installed, a source of water, a driveway graveled, buildings and fences built, etc.  Paying more for an established plot of land may be well worth it in the long run.