Over the years, the owners of 80-year-old Ramsey Creek Farms have been approached often by commercial interests offering to buy their 140 acres of farmland on Cape Girardeau's lucrative fringe.

Each time they've given the same curt reply: It's not for sale.

"My son still wants to milk cows," said Charles Schabbing, whose adult son David runs the dairy operation now. "We won't sell until David gets tired of milking. And I don't know if I ever see that happening."

The Schabbing farmland, situated less than a mile from the Super Wal-Mart off Route K, is typical of agricultural land in Southeast Missouri -- valuable.

A survey conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia over the summer shows that Cape Girardeau County has some of the most expensive cropland per acre in the state. In fact, the counties of St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Perry, Cape Girardeau and Scott have the most valuable good cropland in the state, the survey shows.

The survey shows that good cropland in those counties will cost about $2,525 an acre, more than good cropland in any other Missouri region. Average cropland is valued at $2,235 an acre in those counties, and poor cropland has an estimated value of $1,294 an acre.

The average price of cropland statewide is $2,060 an acre for good cropland, $1,657 for average cropland and $1,294 for poor cropland, according to the University of Missouri-Columbia report.

Missouri stacks up well with other states in the Midwest. For all cropland, Missouri's average cost per acre is $1,890 an acre compared to $800 an acre in Kansas, $1,420 an acre in Arkansas, $2,650 an acre in Iowa and $3,030 in Illinois.

The survey was conducted in July to determine what people think has been happening to farmland values in Missouri, said Joyce White, the project coordinator who collected the data and co-authored the report.

Missourians are not required to report the sale price of land to any governmental or public agency, and the volume of transactions involving land for farming is small, she said. So White and agriculture professor Ron Plain gathered opinions through a survey of 219 people with a professional interest in land values. Of those, 67 percent were lenders, 13 percent were rural appraisers, 8 percent were extension specialists, 6 percent were Realtors and 5 percent were in other related occupations, she said.

Respondents were asked to estimate values for three classes of cropland and pasture -- good, average and poor. Classification of the land was left to the judgment of each respondent, White said.

White, who is based in Columbia, Mo., agreed the cropland in Southeast Missouri is among the best in the state.

But just because the region that includes Cape Girardeau County has the most valuable good cropland in the state doesn't necessarily mean the land is better than land further into the Bootheel, she said.

"It's just that in the Cape Girardeau area, more people want to buy it because there's more room for commercial growth," she said. "Any time you factor in the potential for commercial development it shoots the value up."

Respondents also were asked how much they thought farmland values in their area had changed during the past 10 years. On average, they estimated that the value of all types of farmland had increased about 10 percent.

In the Cape Girardeau area, one respondent said another factor accounting for higher values is a greater demand for farmland, White said. She was told there is a large demand for farmland from people who want to retire and buy property.

"When people retire, they want to get out of the city," she said. "Apparently, that's been the case there."

Gerald Bryan, an agronomist with the University of Missouri Extension Service in Cape Girardeau County, said farmland near Cape Girardeau has potential for both commercial and housing developers.

"That land price is then influenced by the developmental value and not the agricultural production value," he said.

Anything within 20 miles of Cape Girardeau is going to be more valuable, he said, but the proximity to Cape Girardeau is still a factor as far away as Benton to the south and Perryville to the north.

Farmland appreciates about 6 percent a year, Bryan said. Over 15 years, that means the value of land can double, he said.

"So these surveys don't always tell you how much farmland is truly worth when it comes to a production value," Bryan said. "You'd like to factor that out, but you can never take it completely out of it."

As the land values keep going up, people like the Schabbings can expect those offers to keep rolling in. But Schabbing said the answer won't change -- at least not immediately.

"Yeah, they've asked if we want to sell," Schabbing said. "But we've always said no."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126