ESTEVAN — Buyers looking to expand their agricultural operations will have a rare opportunity to acquire a 10,137-acre assemblage, when the property called The Big Spread near Estevan becomes available via a CLHbid.com online auction on Oct. 17, starting at 9 a.m.
The 11-parcel assemblage, which is rich with diverse cereal and oilseed crops, forage crops, an abundance of water and significant surface lease revenue, will be the largest block of land ever sold by online escalating tender in Saskatchewan, says the company's press release.
The Big Spread's 64 quarters are selling as 11 parcels, with an option to purchase parcels one through nine "en bloc". CLHbid.com's "en bloc" process offers bidders who have bid the highest on a set number of parcels to then bid against other multiple high bidders for the entire "en bloc" land up for sale.
The property could become an addition to an existing operation and can be attractive for a large farmer, cattle producer or daughter colony, the company suggested. The land includes more than 7,700 acres of pasture and more than 2,000 cultivated acres, which could be doubled.
"Additionally, changing demographics in the region mean more acres in the area will be for sale in the near future, making the area ripe for big agriculture and significant expansion of the property entirely possible," the auction company said.
The land is situated near the Saskatchewan-North Dakota border. In 2022, the parcels produced more than 5,000 tons of silage, 1,500 large, round hay bales and 250 greenfeed bales, and still had enough grass to support 1,100 cow-calf pairs, according to the information provided by CLHbid.com.
"With excellent husbandry and attention to detail, The Big Spread will be able to turn out numbers like these year over year," they added.
Collectively, the property's many features include two homes, a mature yard site, cattle-ready fences, a shop, a barn, a Quonset, large silos, a cement pad for silage, and a complete covered livestock handling system. The Big Spread also includes more than $236,000 in annual surface lease revenue, as well as alternative revenue streams from the sale of clay to local oil companies and the potential for aggregate sales.
With average rainfall of 19 inches annually, and heat units throughout the summer months, southeastern Saskatchewan offers less risk than many other parts of Western Canada and the central Midwest, providing sure footing for farmers and ranchers alike, CLHbid.com said.
Water-wise, The Big Spread is host to four large-volume water wells, five new dugouts, several pre-existing dugouts, two small lakes, and the Souris River, which flows from east to west across Parcel One. In addition to having groundwater and rainwater in abundance, a current engineering study regarding the development of a potential water dam to accommodate 1,300 acres of irrigation is well aligned with The Big Spread.
Bound by the Canada-U.S. border to the south, it also provides the opportunity to move commodities between markets. The Northgate border crossing connecting Bowbells, N.D., and Alameda is located on the southeast corner, and access to Ceres Global Ag Corp is next door.
"With the bulk of the work already done, The Big Spread provides a vast number of contiguous acres, which is rare on either side of the 49th parallel," says the press release.
Starting bids for each of the 11 parcels will range from $375,000 to $2.8 million. The property may be viewed by interested registered bidders by contacting [email protected] for an appointment. To view images, descriptions and relevant documents for each parcel, please visit clhbid.com/auctions/thebigspread.
CLHbid.com auctions typically take place over two hours. A minimum starting bid provides a safety net to the owner, as no buyers can bid below that price. As the expiration time nears, if a bid comes in, the expiration time will automatically be extended giving all buyers an opportunity to bid again.
Western Canada-based CLHbid.com was created in 2016 by the law firm CLH Law. CLHbid.com never discloses bidder's names to any party, including the seller. Only the successful buyer's name is ever disclosed to the seller as part of the closing process.
