Maple Leaf Farms land sold
Approximately 570 acres of Racine County land formerly used for Maple Leaf Farms Inc.’s Union Grove duck production operations sold for $3.4 million recently in an auction that attracted 115 registered bidders from four states. The land sold for an average price of $5,936 per acre.
Milford, Ind.-based Maple Leaf Farms closed its Racine County duck production facility earlier this year and put the land up for sale.
"We’re just as pleased as we can be with the outcome, which we believe achieved the best possible price for the property," said Scott Tucker, co-president of Maple Leaf Farms, which retained Schrader Auction Co. to market the property and manage the auction. "The level of awareness was particularly impressive as a result of a very effective advertising and marketing campaign."
The land was divided into 15 tracts, according to Gary Bailey, Schrader’s agent in charge of the sale.
"We had a strong and diverse group of bidders that included farmers and developers, as well as individuals seeking sites on which to build homes for themselves," Bailey said. "There was a lot of excitement, with a crowd of about 300 people."
Much of the bidding consisted of competition between bidders for individual tracts and those seeking to purchase larger combinations of tracts.
