At a time of growing worker needs across the agriculture industry and strong sustained interest among agriculture students, Kirkwood Community College last week secured more educational cropland with a $1.4 million purchase of 80 nearby acres.
The prime plot of rolling farmland at 2800 Wright Brothers Blvd. SW sits about 2 miles southeast of Kirkwood’s main campus in Cedar Rapids, adjacent other Kirkwood acreage used for its many agriculture-related programs and degrees.
“This is going to aid in our education and enterprise operations for our farm operations,” Kirkwood Vice President of Facilities and Public Safety Troy McQuillen told the college’s board of trustees before it unanimously approved the purchase Thursday.
“The adjacency allows us to gain some additional acres,” he said, “and it kind of keeps Kirkwood secure in our borders on the southwest side of the development of Wright Brothers Boulevard.”
Because of growth in the area, the Iowa Department of Transportation is widening Interstate 380 to six lanes from the north ramps of the Swisher interchange to just south of U.S. Highway 30 and to reconfigure the Wright Brothers Boulevard interchange — the main exit to The Eastern Iowa Airport and to a surrounding boom in manufacturing, warehouses and homes. The project is estimated to cost $112 million.
McQuillen described the farmland as being in a “great location” and “well taken care of.”
“It’s an amazing property,” he said, “and just really feels like Kirkwood.”
Kirkwood President Kristie Fisher told The Gazette this specific purchase at this specific time was directed more by opportunity than strategy — given development in and around its farmland and the fact that, "You have an inability to control timing.”
“We've been aware for a number of years that we need additional acres, because we currently rent some acres near campus and you could lose those any year,” Fisher said. “So we've just been waiting for the right piece at the right price to become available, and this one just was perfect.”
The 80 acres that Kirkwood is scheduled to close on Nov. 15 came on the market in May. It was listed at $1.436 million, and Kirkwood signed a purchase agreement for $1.356 million.
“It's just making sure that, with all the development out here, that we protect the future of that program and we protect ourselves from losing the acres that we rent right now,” Fisher said. “Because we know we need a certain number of acres to be able to do the ag-production classes.”
Kirkwood’s agriculture program is highly ranked across the Midwest and is one of the largest two-year ag programs in the nation, according to Josh Henik, associate professor in agriculture business and science with Kirkwood.
Getting students in the field with as much hands-on experience and training as possible is the aim for the students, the teachers and the employers — who, Henik said, are always looking for trained workers.
“We have a lot of businesses knocking on our doors,” he said. “All of our students, if they want a job, they could easily have one following graduation. There's a growing population, and everyone needs to eat. So there's demand for people in agriculture, that is for sure.”
Kirkwood has nearly a dozen ag-related programs — including things like turf management, natural resources, row crop production and ag business. The total Kirkwood campus spans 600 acres and includes about 400 acres for the agriculture sciences.
Within the last five years, Kirkwood converted about 120 acres it rents from the Army Corps of Engineers by Coralville Lake from use for crops to natural prairie.
“So in terms of total acres,” Henik said of the new cropland purchase, “this will go to kind of replace some of those acres that we lost.”
The proximity of the new Kirkwood land to the main campus also is a positive.
“These are going to be much closer,” he said. “So it fits more closely with the mission of teaching when those acres are close to campus and we can more easily get students out into the field.”
Among the contingencies in the Kirkwood land-purchase agreement, according to documents provided to The Gazette, is an assurance the seller has not made any deals with Wolf Carbon Solutions “with regard to a proposed CO2 pipeline across the property” — and that “Wolf Carbon Solutions has no interest in the property.”
The company proposes to build a carbon dioxide capture pipeline between ADM ethanol plants, including one in Cedar Rapids, but has said it does not plan to use eminent domain authority — only voluntary leases — to acquire easem*nts for the route.
The farm property includes a two-story frame house built in 1902 and consisting of 1,564 square feet of living space. “Once the property is in Kirkwood’s possession, the college plans to demo the house on the property and cap the well and septic systems,” Kirkwood spokesman Justin Hoehn said.
While preparing plots for student arrival and mowing the grounds they’ll work on, Kirkwood farm operations manager Travis Allen on Monday said the new land will give faculty “more opportunity to teach them on different soils.”
“It gives us more opportunities to partner with outside people,” Allen said. “It gives the students more experience close to campus.”
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
