The Committee for Agricultural Development, a non-profit organization affiliated with Iowa State, plans to sell almost 800 acres of farmland in central and southwest Iowa that Iowa State has used in the past.

A total of 439 acres of farmland is planned to be sold at a site northwest of Ames. An additional 360 acres could be sold near Treynor in Pottawattamie County.

Iowa State used the fields for research, teaching and growing cash crops.

Del Koch, director for the Committee for Agricultural Development, said the land in southwest Iowa became expendable after a 40-year-old research project studying watersheds by the United States Department of Agriculture and Iowa State came to an end.

Koch said the land near Ames was sold because city growth was starting to push on the land and about a quarter of the land is timber.

“The land was bumping into Ames,” he said.

Iowa State’s Land Management Plan, made in 1996, suggested the farmland near Ames could be sold because of proximity to urban growth.

Nevada-based Hertz Farm Management is handling the sale and said the Ames land will probably be used for development rather than farming.

Marvin Huntrods, real estate appraiser for Hertz, said prime farmland in central Iowa can sell for as high as $4,000 an acre.

Koch said the Committee for Agricultural Development could use some of the proceeds of the sale to give a $1 million grant to the new ISU dairy research facility.

The rest of the money will be used for future acquisitions and expenses.

Iowa State is planning to build the new dairy facility on a 887 acre site south of Ames. The land was bought by the Committee for Agricultural Development for $6.25 million this year.