Just got a notice from Hancock/Manulife that they have been undercharging way below fair market value for leases is some areas and will be going up. I have a lease 120 acres in Childersburg. I hope they don't make un affordable.

What that means is that they are about to set the area average, not adjust to the average.

That ain’t good news.

We were just informed by Weyrehauser that it was going to cost more per acre if there were green fields .

They are charging more if you plant fields?

Rayonier charges us $100 per greenfield for plots less than an acre. No telling what they charge for big plots???

Nalte charges $100 a plot over an acre. Only have one that's over.

What’s the specifics on that? You have a letter you could share?

I don't know the details. I was over this weekend and they have planted pines in all the fields that were part of a clear-cut

I guess I’m confused then, about the plots costing extra or not. Were those plots in the clearcut long established sizable plots, or newer smallish loading deck type areas?

Rayonier charges Southside and Carney $115/acre for food plots. Doesn't matter what size, they add it all up and charge $115/acre on the total. Powerlines, roads, and gas line right-of-ways are "free".

Each plot has a sticker on either the shooting house or a small sign at the entrance to the field letting you know the size of the field, and therefore it's "cost" (size x $115).

Long established plots, 30 or 40 years old. Apparently the guy that has control of the lease made the decision to give the fields up rather than pay extra money.

This is not happening in south AL from what I’ve seen. Is this north NW AL?

Yes, Pickens co

Definitely happening with Rayonier in Baldwin County...unless you're talking about folks just not planting due to the extra cost.

Like I said above...Rayonier is charging $115/acre for food plots...doesn't matter how long they've been established. I know 100% that a ton of the ones at Carney are well over 50 years old...and they're getting charged for them.

they already don’t allow corn on there leases right?

Correct

That’s westervelt.

There’s nothing I’ve seen in any weyco leases about baiting being prohibited.

I thought Wey bought Westervelt

That’s was Plum Creek and Weyco

Sounds like it's happening to everyone. Manulife is charging for camps and structures i.e. storage and anything over 10 structures you have to pay for another camp site. That's going to be expensive for a large club.
Shooting house's aren't considered structures yet.

I would pay $115 to have a food plot bigger than an acre. If I could have 10 food plots on my lease that were a couple acre's each, that would be awesome, but I don't have any flatish area's large enough to have one that size.

I'd love to have a powerline, if they kept it secure. The last club I was in had 2, and it was insane trying to keep people out.

It’s like the government- they’ll keep squeezing you for more and more

They know if you don't pay it someone else will. Hunting is big money. You either pay or don't hunt these days.

If any of you guys that refuse to pay the higher lease prices have any property y’all are turning loose in South Monroe co., let me know. We’re always looking to expand and willing to pay for the lease.

My lease went up .63 per acre. But it's only 120 acres.

Yep....out of staters running the lease prices up.

Sounds to me like he's just someone that is willing to pick up a lease, that is getting dropped, due to someone making the personal decision that the price has gotten too high for them to warrant releasing it themselves. What is too high for one, may not even be approaching high for someone else. State or residency doesnt matter one bit. Happens all the time and rest assured, if it wasnt Marsh, in that area, it'd be someone local there in Jackson or Monroeville, or someone from Baldwin, Mobile, Escambia, Conecuh, Butler, Lowndes, Wilcox or Montgomery counties, that would step up and be happy to lease it. Contrary to the false claim you continue to beat like a dead horse, there are plenty of Alabama residents more than willing to lease any decent property coming available and also a bunch, that will go out of their way to try to find a way to lease a really good piece of property right out from under you, even if you want to keep it.

A bigger concern is a developer buying it. I don't see how they do it myself. We are adding on at work, and I know what my first months bill, which was all dirt moving, cost. How they can do that for 2 years and build a couple hundred houses and make $ is beyond me.

You have westervelt property. You are allowed 10% of the acreage to be in food plots. We have a few over an acre and one right at two acres. Talk to your lease manager. He can authorize bigger plots, they did it for me. Just can’t exceed the 10% of total. Unless you have power lines or gas lines like we do. Those don’t count toward the 10%. Just telling you how we went about it. Now you can plant load outs and other areas without trees but they aren’t protected like the 10% you have on file.

You sure it's 10%, and not 1%?

10% of a 1000 acre lease is 100 acres of fields.

There's no way they allow that.

😂. Ya I was a bit tired and my math got crazy. It’s 1%. We have 2000 acres and are allowed 20 acres of plots. Thanks for helping me out

I lease from Rayonier and their website says 160 per acre.

I wish I had 10 acres in fields. I basically plant roads and log decks. Sometimes when they thin they create area's I can plant, but these aren't always easy to get to, much less do much work on. The downside is loggers ruin most of them when they come and cut, even though they aren't supposed to get on the, they do.

Must have gone up (no surprise) in the last couple of years. My info is straight from the guy who runs Carney.

Dont wish for too much. I'm getting rid of some foodplots and letting them grow up. The price of seed, fert, and fuel is too high. Ive got one 400 acre place that had about 12-14 acres and now I maintain 8 acres. My private ground I have 5 acres split between 4 spots. Then on the group land there is 20ish plots with about 32 acres. I'm going to cut that back over the next couple years to 20 acres. Too much money and mostly not enough time. Just doing my private spots my wife is about to kill me. I've got to spread more lime tomorrow. Then april I'll be liming the major stuff. Ive got to have someone pick up 26 1500lb totes next week. Luckily I get the lime for free. But, without help from a couple older guys I'd be up poop creek.

Naw!! I just posted that to take a little jab. The only place I’m looking at more land to lease in or around Sonora.

You’ll have to take that up with your lease manager. We’ve had em mess up a couple but we watch em when they cutting. I’ll, call em immediately if I hear of or see any plot damage. Pay too much for loggers to mess up my fields that are supposed to be protected according to westervelt.

I saw 1000+ acres for 29$ per acre the other day.

How much is the average price of land in south Alabama. Seems to me like some of yall should be buying if it is feasible. I know a guy just bought a chunk of land on the court house steps that probably aint spending that kind of money. Get you some buddys that are paying that kind of money to hunt and let them help you pay for it

Most of the timber co land in wilcox co is in the 15-18/acre range. My neighbor pays 18 for his weyerhauser lease

I mean how much to purchase land. Is it affordable ? Can you buy land in the 2000 dollar range? I have seen it go from 1 to 6 an acre in Jackson county where I live. My thoughts is what yall are doing is like renting a house and fixing it up but you might get kicked out at any time

I don’t miss having to deal with this shucks.

Kinda like being a proctologist.

Our Baldwin County lease went up $1.34 an acre this year for 1425 acres!!! Yikes

Rayonier hit us with another $0.63 per acre raise on 4000 acres. Paying a shade under $12 an acre now in S Alabama is insane. Land ain’t worth half that but it is what it is. And they moved in the week before turkey season and started cutting

Mine is $11.82 in clarke - its a solid deer lease - 2 stud 4 year olds made it best i can tell. They Should make 120s - one of the stud may do more

The loggers ruined 3 of my fields with the latest clearcut. Two will be easy enough to replant, since there is a shooting house/ladder there, the downside is I basically had a tunnel almost all the way to the shooting house with screening from briars and what not. Now it sticks out like a sore thumb, as does the house on one of my biggest plots. We will see how much it grows up around it this year. The other one I probably won't replant. It wouldn't bug me so much if they ran over a field if they wouldn't push dirt off it too. That's what they did when they thinned too. That means starting over trying to rebuild some top soil, which takes time. Sad the other would be a good one, but I don't have any place to put a stand, I would have to take a house down there, and there wouldn't be any cover.

I am cutting back on some of the small ones. I used to take the position that I needed to plant everything I could, but now I am dialing back a little. Like you mentioned, getting everything limed is an issue, and no one seems to want to work.

I did plant some bulldog 805 alfalfa a couple weeks ago. Weekend rain, and the delay in getting my disk back held me up. I put some 0-20-20 on it saturday ahead of the rain today, but it looks like I got some really good germination, so as long as I get some consistent rain, I think it will come up pretty well. I bet the clover that was there will re-establish too. I am interested to see how it does.