Opinion ID: 365554
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Adjustment for pasture

Text: 40 Before the taking, the Dyar property consisted, in part, of open land or pasture land and, in part, of timber land. The commission considered sales of different properties in order to value each of these components of the Dyar property. In order to value the open land or pasture land, the commission considered sales of three properties that it considered comparable. The prices of each of these properties was adjusted to take into account differences between it and the Dyar property. With the adjustments made by the commission, the prices of these comparables were $459, $468 and $500; based on this evidence, the commission valued the Dyar pasture land at $485 per acre. 41 The owners assert that a 10 percent downward adjustment made by the commission to account for pasture in the price of one of the comparables, a sale by Barksdale to Beauchamp, is clearly erroneous. The commission gave no justification for this adjustment. The reason for it is not self-evident, although the record suggests at least one possible explanation. 4 We are unable, however, to determine from the record what the commission's rationale actually was. The landowner was entitled to an explanation that would permit us intelligently to review it. See United States v. Trout, supra. Further findings should have been made by the commission.