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what is 16 section land. I keep hearing about it and was just wondering?

Land the federal goverment set aside for different school districts from the way i take it. Its a 640 acrea block that the schools rent for revenue.

Sections are 1 mile square unless a county line or something else chops them up.

Counties are divided into townships, ranges and sections. The sections are numbered up to 36, then they start over. You'll see on a deed, Township 1, Range 3 West, Section 14 or something to that effect. Depending on the size of the county, you can have 10 or 12 or maybe dozens of 16th sections. And like MM said, the public school gets the revenue from the rent.

You can see the section lines pretty easily in the Delta. Usually bordered by canals, roads, or treelines. They run N/S and E/W. Nice when you're in a plane and need to get "re-oriented"

do farmers lease these for crops? or do they lease out to hunters? just wondering cuz i found one near a place that held a lot of geese last year and was wondering about it

The hunting rights are sometimes leased out.

olemissduckhunter wrote:do farmers lease these for crops? or do they lease out to hunters? just wondering cuz i found one near a place that held a lot of geese last year and was wondering about it

Yes to both questions. They usually lease for farming and hunting at the same time.

Most 16 section land that has cropable acres on it has been leased out to a farmer.

In some cases 16 section land will have two distinct leases on it: one for the hunting in the wooded areas and a second lease for ag purposes that also allows the ag lessee to hunt the fields.

If I remember correctly only counties north of the chickasaw-choctaw line have 16th section lands set aside for the school districts.

This link has some good information on 16th section land.

http://www.sos.state.ms.us/PublicLands/16th/16l_faq.asp

They will lease it to anyone for anything.....highest bidder takes the prize

There is 16th (school board land) section land all over Mississippi not just above the choctaw line. We Used to lease some in Wayne county where i live for deer hunting. The way they are set up here now is you bid on it every 3 years. If you are the highest bidder per acre(ie $8.00/acre) you are locked in at that for three years. After 3 years it can be leased by whomever is the highest bidder. After all bids are in you are notified if you are the highest or not. If not you have the option to re bid a higher offer to retain the lease the other bidders only get one chance. You also pay insurance and land taxes on the 640 acres. That is one reason we quit leasing is that 16th section is a non taxable land and they have a minimum bid that they will accept. Thats how it is here. May be different in other counties. The section we were leasing had 30 acres that was leased to another guy for farming. and the rest was wooded and beaver ponds.

Trick question about school sections that I may add. There are some 16 sections that are more than a mile square. These are old land grants. I know there are some around the river. I believe there is one in Claiborne Co. that encompasses more than 15000 acres near GG.

There are some fine tracts of 16th section behind the levee on the river . . . i know of several $$$ hunting clubs that have gotten into bidding wars over the tracts, one such instance ran the lease rate to 50 an acre