The question is, why is Burnt still twiddling his thumbs and sitting down in the rat race of S. Ontario? I think I would like him as a neighbour much more than these Mennonites and Amish that are moving in here.
Although it is fun watching these newcomers try and make a go of it. Lots of talk for the coffee shop.
You want to avoid most of the places you listed, PC. Dryden, Kirkland Lake, Kapuskasing, etc. are all small outcrops of tillable land. Lots of small parcels of land amongst a lot of bush. If you want a decent area available for expansion, I will suggest my area, between Rainy River and Fort Frances, which is quickly becoming the 'last frontier' in Ontario.
Now it's not all sunshine and roses. The major factor that keeps people out of here is the remoteness. Closest city from here is Winnipeg at 3 1/2 hours, followed by Thunder Bay at 5 hours and Minneapolis at about 5 hours as well. That's assuming that the US of A allows you to cross their border to take the shortcut to Winnipeg, otherwise, it is a 5 hour drive as well. Also, ag-related industry is pretty much non-existant here, that is why a few of us buy the majority of our inputs in Minnesota.
Next-door neighbours sold their place for about $980 an acre. That included 320 acres and a 3000 sq ft, 30 year old home with geothermal. Expensive to us, but cheap by most standards. Fences were falling down in every direction, but that didn't matter to the new owner. He's a feedlot man and it going to clear it all for corn and barley. :roll: :lol: So far it's been a real gong show and it should be available to purchase within the next couple of years.
Make no mistake, this is cow and backgrounder country. Grass country. Not feedlot alley. Grains are basically grown on a hobby-type basis. Any volume of feed is brought in from Winnipeg on a regular basis.
Corn will grow here (120-150 bus/acre). Our heat units are very close to Burnt's. But forget barley - far too wet for it. Oats do well (70-120 bus/acre). Not enough canola or soybeans has been grown to get a good estimate. In dry years, like the last 2, they do well.
You can't swath graze here and bale-grazing is tough (because of the amount of snow). A normal winter will see 3-4 feet of snow everywhere. Although it has been a while, we can get a freak winter where we get 5-6+ feet. And the snow stays. Not like Burnt's area where you can get a dump and it melts away within a week or two, or on the prairie where it blows away.
Unless it is bought by someone from outside, bare land never sells for over $600-800/acre here. Most doesn't sell for over $500. There isn't a great deal of demand for it and the old standby of Americans looking for hunting land or 'investment land' has collapsed since before the recession.
People are cheap here in every aspect. Bull sellers from Manitoba have come to sell bulls here and left with a trailer load of bulls, muttering "cheap SOB's" I have yet to see a two-year old bull sell for more than $2500 around here. Lots of yearlings for around $2000. And that is top-end prices.
So, to sum up, yes land is cheap, but there are reasons why.
I can think of a few people you could contact if your interested in land around here.
Here is an older listing of land available here. My neighbour's place was the 2nd picture from the bottom, Stratton - 325 acres. I'm not sure where the extra 5 acres came from. :lol:
http://www.rainyrivervalley.ca/pdf/land-sale.pdf
