One of the biggest land transfers in recent history took place in 2012 when LR Corporation of Aberdeen sold about 17,000 acres of farmland to buyers in five counties, according to county records.
The sales, most of which were private and took place later in the year, were to farmers in Brown, McPherson, Spink, Clark and Roberts counties.
LR Corp. is owned by the members of the Lamont and Rhodes families. Ernie Rhodes and William and Robert Lamont Sr. were the founders of Dacotah Bank in Aberdeen. The families had been in the land business for many years, dating back to the 1920s when Ernie Rhodes and B.C. Lamont formed a business alliance.
The largest amount of land sold was in McPherson County - 10,800 acres. In Brown County, about 4,940 acres were sold.
Almost all of the property was purchased by farmers who had rented it for many years, some for generations, said Robert Lamont Jr. an LR Corp. shareholder.
In Brown County, about 17 different farmers bought land ranging from 80 acres to more than 1,000 acres, said Mary Worlie, director of equalization.
The value was determined by an independent appraiser and then offered to the renter at that price, Lamont said. The renter was given the option to buy it directly without the land going up for auction.
"We felt that was the fairest way," Lamont said. "There is no question that if it had gone to auction, it would have gone quite a bit higher."
The relationship between the Lamont and Rhodes families and those that farm the land has always been important, he said. We treated them like neighbors, the way we would have wanted to be treated, he said.
Prices for the land varied greatly depending on location and soil quality. For example, 158 acres (two quarter-sections) of grassland in Clark County sold for $1,900-an acre, while a 316-acre tract of cropland in Brown County sold for $5,400 an acre.
In McPherson County, all the LR Corp. land was purchased by two farming operations. Waltman Farms bought 9,840 acres and the Weiszhaar Family purchased 960 acres.
"Historically, it is very significant in its size and value," said Steve Berndt, owner of Campbell County Abstract in Herreid, who has made land abstracts of McPherson County since 1996. "There is nothing to approach the size of the sales in 70 years and it could easily be the largest single transaction in McPherson County history."
Berndt said that there were mortgage companies that owned large amounts of land in the 1920s and 1930s after many farmers went bankrupt. Commodities prices plunged following World War I starting the Great Depression early in South Dakota, he said.
"Historically, we have had landowners with large holdings before, but when they sold the land, it happened more slowly to individual farmers," he said. "We have never seen a transaction like the one we just had in McPherson County of this scale."
Worlie said the sale of nearly 5,000 acres of land in Brown County is "historic by recent standards."
"It is the biggest sale since I have been here and I started in Brown County in 1999," she said.
While LR Corp. sold most of its land through private sales, three parcels of Brown County land were sold at an auction in November. One 158-acre tract of prime farmland in Cambria Township set a Brown County record by fetching $13,000 an acre. The other quarter-sections sold for $11,500-an-acre, while a tract of grassland sold for $3,700 an acre.
Lamont said the LR Corp. decided to sell land in 2012 in part because of the increase in capital gains taxes set to go into effect in 2013.
Worlie said that the corporation has sold nearly all of its land in Brown County. LR has about 1,300 acres left in Brown County, she said.
