The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture has 5,400 acres of Crown land available for sale through an online auction
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A total of 5,400 acres of Crown land in Saskatchewan will be up for sale in an online auction starting Feb. 24.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture has two Crown land sales a year, one now and one in November. In this sale, 37 parcels of land are combined into 26 lots.
“Out of this stuff we have advertised here I would say probably two-thirds of it is grazing land and a third of it is cultivated,” said Wally Hoehn, the executive director of the ministry’s lands branch. Most of the land in this sale is in central and northern Saskatchewan, he added.
The Crown land that is for sale is land that becomes vacant for several reasons, Hoehn explained to Farms.com.
“It could be leases that were surrendered or they decided they no longer wanted to rent it,” he said. “It could be just vacant land that's been in our database.”
Before this land can be put up for auction, the Ministry of Ag checks with rural municipalities and other ministries to see if a need exists for the land, Hoehn said.
Some of the land up for auction has Crown conservation easements on it. These easements are legal agreements between a landowner and a conservation agency to preserve natural features and resources on private lands.
“There's a copy of the actual agreement that's attached (online) for potential bidders to read and to fully understand the conditions surrounding that specific parcel,” said Hoehn.
If people are interested in purchasing land, they can visit the Richie Bros. Iron Planet website where the auction will be held. Visitors to the site will be able to find all the parcels of land and they can sign up to become an approved bidder.
Once the auction starts on Feb. 24, potential buyers can place bids. A minimum reserve bid needs to be met before the land will sell.
“The opening bid will be below that just to start the bidding but, as soon as the reserve is met through the bidding process, then whoever is bidding is made aware of that on the website. It says the reserve has been met and this land will sell,” said Hoehn.
Staggered closing dates are in place for the auction. Fifteen of the parcels will close March 10 and the remaining will close March 12. Any parcels of land that do not sell will go into a secondary auction that starts March 18.
Photo credit: Iron Plant website