Marketing yourself is important
CHAMPAIGN – Murray Wise is contacted by farm operators each year who have impressive marketing materials such as DVDs and calendars.
The farm management and land company CEO believes it is important for farmers to market themselves.
“The two farms that I bought in Illinois during 2018 were brought to me by operators who wanted to farm them but not necessarily want to buy them,” Wise recalled. “They told me what we would need to do to acquire them so we did it.”
Neither piece of ground was listed for sale and both farms were patterned tiled. The larger of the two properties has already gone into Wise’s family foundation.
“If those guys do a good job, they’ll be farming it 50 years from now after I’m long since dead and gone.”
Wise has turned bullish on the value of high quality land. He had bearish feelings toward the entire land market for the past six or seven years, so this is a change of pace.
“I think we are on the verge of turning the corner,” Wise said at this year’s Illinois Public Media All Day Outlook Meeting. “I realize there are challenges in front of us but if we look down the road, we have good times ahead of us.”
Wise cautions farmers to be careful and know their cash flows to ensure they will be around to survive another day. Even though he has commitments with the stock market and commercial property, Wise still feels owning high-quality farmland is attractive from an investment standpoint.
He feels A quality ground has a bright future for the long term but the B and C quality ground is more challenging and not as appealing to producers or buyers.