Farmers are making millions from land sales which may entice others to follow

Veteran real estate agent Jim Barham of Elders said while a combination of low interest rates, good seasons and a bright outlook for agriculture was the driver, there was another factor.

"People are starting to realise they are not making new land anymore," Mr Barham said.

The biggest auction result on Friday was reached near Ararat for 179 hectares sold for $23,582/ha or $9550 an acre.

The land was fenced into five paddocks and has been cropped as well as raising prime lambs and for hay production.

Agent Brad Jensen of Ararat Ballarat Real Estate said a neighbour had bought the block from the retiring owner - neither whom wanted their names disclosed.

"It is a tightly held area and a number of neighbours were competing for it."

He said the previous record for the municipality was $6500 an acre.

"I expect with the prices floating around the moment we might see some people bringing forward their plans to take land to the market."

There were five bidders among the 100 people who attended the auction.

That result was closely shaved by the $23,590/ha offered after neighbours competed at auction over a small 39ha paddock on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula late last month.

Agent Troy Goldsworthy of Nutrien Harcourts Minlaton said it was the highest price for farmland he had ever seen in the district.

The Ararat sale came on the same day as another big auction of farm land in the Wimmera which again surprised onlookers.

This latest sale of 252 hectares between Marnoo and Wallaloo reached $15,569ha at auction on Friday

It did quite reach the Wimmera record, set only few weeks ago at Miga Lake, which reached $19,140ha.

Or in acre terms, the Wallaloo farm land sold for $6300 against Miga Lake's $7750.

A sale last month in Kaniva last month reached $6820 per acre to start the run of amazing results.

Kabinga, the property sold on Friday, had been in the same family ownership, the estate of C.P. Fraser, for more than a century.

It had been leased to John and Dianne Newell since 2004 and sold to Minyip region farmers Robert and Kate Cowan.

Elders agent Jim Barham said a combination of record low interest rates and good grain harvests was producing some amazing results across the Wimmera, prices he never thought he'd see reached in his lifetime.

"That area is exceptionally good country all the same."

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