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South Central Texas' land use, ownership changes; Landowners told about profit-making strategies, latest recreational trends |
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By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition |
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June 20,2002 -- Texans have always had a love affair with the land, and as times change and land passes through generations, new opportunities arise for landowners. The latest strategies for keeping land profitable, as well as tapping into the latest recreational trends in Texas, were presented to landowners during the recent wildlife business seminar at the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Cooper Farm in Fayette County, Speakers from Texas A&M University, LCRA, and the Texas Leadership Institute led the crowd through a day-long seminar covering everything from changing land use and land ownership in South Central Texas to wildlife management and birding opportunities. The area addressed included counties in the Black Land Prairie, the Post Oak Savanna, and the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes, which includes counties from the Gulf of Mexico, north, to Central Texas. "There are some big differences in ecological communities in these areas, big differences in wildlife communities in these areas ... it makes a difference in the opportunities the different landowners have for taking advantage of their natural resources for enterprise development," said Dr. Neal Wilkins, wildlife specialist with Texas Cooperative Extension out of College Station. Wilkins addressed ownership fragmentation, or the division of rural lands into smaller acreage that remain in rural use. With the changing times and economical situations, property is being redistributed, reused and renewed for new ventures. According to information from the USDA Agricultural Statistics Service, about 80 percent of Texas' ranches and farms are less than 500 acres, but the ownership size varies as you travel north from the Gulf. "Averages aren't worth much when you start talking about ownership sizes, and it's hard to visualize what 'average' means, because nobody owns an 'average' size piece of land," said Wilkins. He added that between 20 and 22 percent of landowners in South Central Texas own less than 100 acres of land. "There's a decreasing ownership size, in general, as you go from the coast inland, in this area, and an increasing proportion of ownerships of less than 100 acres," said Wilkins. Because of the smaller acreage per owner, he suggested making use of co-ops and associations to help with managing wildlife resources. Wilkins focused on lands that were less than 500 acres, because that seemed to be a "breaking" point between smaller and larger landowners. "About 15 percent of the farms and ranches in Texas are less than 500 acres in size, but this represents 77 percent of the total farm and ranch numbers," he said. According to Wilkins, 77 percent of the farmers and ranchers own only 15 percent of the land, with 23 percent of landowners owning 85 percent of the land. This makes and "average" piece of property even harder to realize. He said one or two owners of really large land can make "averages" seem different than they really are. "The biggest changes were during the 1990s, where we lost about 20,000 acres, per year, out of large ownership sizes into smaller ownership sizes. The biggest change happened in the Black Land Prairie," said Wilkins. "Land use is somewhat related to ownership size distribution. There's some things you can do on large ownership land that you can't do on small ownership, so there's an interaction between ownership size distribution and land use." Concerning property values, Wilkins addressed the market value and the productivity value of land. He said that of the 144,027,157 total acres of agricultural land use, the "average" market value, per acre, is $519. The ag productivity value, per acre, is $83. Wilkins said that land prices are driven by producers, investors, and consumers. "Consumers would be someone that really is not interested in the productivity value. They want to purchase that land in order to 'hold' it," he said. "For the first time, in the fall of 1993, consumers dominated the marketplace, just to own land for the 'romance' of that land." While recreation has "soared" as the major reason for people purchasing land, producers make up only 15 percent of the market place at the present time. While producers are losing ground in ag related land, the new demand for recreational and wildlife facilities is allowing some owners to diversify their land use through leases with these groups. Out of 20 million people in Texas, only one-tenth, or 220,000 are property owners, he added. "About one-tenth of one percent of the state owns land, and the rest of that 20 million wish they did. The second best thing to owning land is being able to have access to land for quality recreation," said Wilkins. |
