SoTxAg said:
Family has 4 farms totaling 630 acres in western Nueces County and in Jim Wells County. Taxes have stayed pretty constant through the years but there was a decent bump in the tax appraisal this year, first one in several years.
Given overall population projections its just a matter of time until people/development get close to you. Bigger issue for me is seeing some of the best land in the country for growing crops getting concrete poured all over it. Much rather see infill development in an already established small town than sprawl development over formerly productive farm land.
It's something to see. I can't get over watching thousands of acres become sold off to developers for thousands of homes and sidewalks. It makes me sick to my stomach. That said, it's hard to fault any of our neighbors when some developer drops a $7M check in their lap for their 250 farm. For most, there will come a time when the amount offered would make you a fool not to take it. It's truly getting to be a place where you have to evaluate your end goal. Do you want to take a crap pile of money and go somewhere else and continue doing what you do with 10 times the land, or do you want to hang on to the generational farm so you can be surrounded by a sea of houses? We can't stop it. It's only a matter of time for many. We all know it even if we do currently conveniently attempt to push the idea out of mind.
My "big picture" question is who is going to feed al of these people? These prime lands aren't just disappearing in a small town or two in Texas. It's all over the state, the US...