Property types
Valuing farmland when a corridor crosses it
Farmland is valued as an operating unit. A corridor that severs fields, cuts irrigation or removes a crossing point damages the operation in ways that the acreage taken does not express.
Method
The larger parcel question matters more here than anywhere
Farms are frequently held in several titles, acquired at different times, sometimes separated by a public road, and worked as one business. Whether those tracts form one larger parcel decides whether damage to the rest of the operation is compensable at all.
Unity of use is usually the strongest argument available to a farming owner: shared machinery, one rotation, one irrigation system, one set of accounts. The evidence is practical rather than legal, and it is worth assembling before the appraisal rather than after it.
Severance on farmland is often about geometry rather than area. Three acres taken from the middle of a field can leave twenty acres that modern equipment cannot work efficiently, and that inefficiency is a permanent cost the market prices.
Specific items
Agricultural damage that is frequently omitted
| Item | Why it is missed |
|---|---|
| Severed drainage tile | Below ground and invisible on inspection unless the owner identifies it |
| Irrigation main or pivot path | A pivot that can no longer complete its circle loses far more than the land taken |
| Crossing points | A single farm crossing removed can add miles to every machinery movement |
| Field geometry | Turning headlands and run lengths change what equipment can operate |
| Fencing and water points | Livestock infrastructure has to be reinstated, often extensively |
| Soil disturbance | Compaction and topsoil loss in working areas reduce yield for years |
| Conservation or set aside agreements | A taking can breach the terms of a scheme the owner is enrolled in |
Questions from landowners
Will I be paid for the crop I lose this year
Growing crops are generally compensable, and the treatment varies. Record what was in the ground and its stage, with photographs and planting records.
My two fields are either side of a public road. Are they one property
Possibly. Unity of use can carry the argument where they are worked as one operation, and that is exactly the question the larger parcel analysis decides.
The pipeline easement says I can still farm over it. Does that mean no loss
Not necessarily. Depth limits, restrictions on deep tillage, access for maintenance and the risk of settlement all affect what the land can carry. The valuation should reflect the real restrictions, not the general reassurance.
Get a valuation question answered
If an offer has arrived and the number does not match what you believe the property is worth, the appraisal behind it is the place to look. Start with the pages below.