962.02± Acres – Rice Farm & Water Assets – Sutter County

This property has unique water rights which are very valuable in todays world. The history of the transferred water and the individual control of water decisions by the land owner could potentially provide many options for a new land owner. (Buyer to do their own due diligence). The farm also operates as a high yielding rice producer year in and year out with plentiful water from back up wells. Additionally, the land owner was recently presented with an offer from the Sutter Buttes Land Trust to enroll the property into an Agricultural Easement. A new owner may also be able to capitalize financially on this opportunity.

Listing Price $19,750,000

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Location:

This property is located at 5780 Vernon Road, Nicolaus, CA 95659 and lies on the south side of West Catlett road in Sutter County. The property can be accessed by heading west on West Catlett road off of Highway 99 and south on Vernon Road.

Legal:

The property is made up of 6 parcels which total 962.02 assessed acres, more or less. The 6 parcels are further described as Sutter County APN #’s: 34-080-025, 34-130-012, 34-130-013, 34-130-014, 34-140-003 & 34-140-007.

Zoning:

The zoning for this property is Agriculture.

Use:

The property has a long history of operating as a high yielding rice farm. Approximately 879 acres are currently farmed to rice. The property has USDA 910.82 rice base acres. A 156ez is available upon request. In addition, the property has a decade long history of substantial income derived from transferring its surface water rights under water contracts. In years in which the surface water is transferred, the farm has a history of still operating as a rice farm using the on site deep wells. This offers income from both the rice farming and the water transfers.

The property is currently farmed under a crop share lease. Under the terms of this lease, all water transfers/sales remain under control and ownership of the land owner.

Soils:

The soils on this ranch are all rated Class #2 and Class #3 by the USDA and are well suited for rice production. Properties in the area are farmed to rice, row crops and various orchards. (See attached soil profile map)

Water:

The property is located in the Pleasant Grove Verona Mutual Water Company and the land owner is a shareholder is this Water Company. In addition, the property has 8 deep wells that combined can produce between 16,000 and 20,000 gallons per minute. The surface water use for this property is by license for diversion and falls under state water rights licenses 6389D, 7064C & 6399. According to MBK Engineering, a 100% allocation supply for this property is 4,079 acre feet. These licenses are owned by the individual shareholder/landowner. Pleasant Grove Verona Mutual Water Company, as agent for its shareholders, has a water rights settlement agreement with the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water resources. The source of the water comes from the Sacramento River and the water is diverted from its tributary, the Natomas Cross Canal, using diversion pumps southeast of the subject property on the Cross Canal. Finally, the farm uses a portable dam structure which enables a closed water system and extreme efficiency of the water use. The entire farm also utilizes every source of tail water from the fields that dump into the main drain canal to be reused at every low lift station as needed.

*Water rights in the State of California are complex. Buyer to do their own due diligence to verify the water rights. A history of water sales income and a write up of a Water Memorandum for the Pleasant Grove Verona Mutual Water Company are available to qualified Buyers upon request.

Improvements:

The property has a small farmstead area located on APN # 034-140-003. This farmstead will be sold in its “AS IS” “WHERE IS” condition. The farmstead area also includes an on site fuel storage with capacity of 45,000 gallons.