Final answer:
The cost for the farmer to purchase the remaining acreage to own the entire NW¼ of the section would be $276,000, which is not listed in the provided options.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the cost of acquiring the remainder of the NW¼ of the section, we first need to determine the total acreage the farmer would need to purchase and then multiply that by the price per acre.
The farmer currently owns the W½ of the NW¼ of the NW¼ of a section. A full section is 640 acres, so a NW¼ of a section is 160 acres. The farmer owns half of that NW¼ of the NW¼, which is ¼ of 160 acres, meaning the farmer owns 40 acres currently.
To own the entire NW¼, the farmer needs to own 160 acres. Since the farmer already owns 40 acres, they would need to purchase an additional 120 acres. Given the price of $2,300 per acre, the cost to purchase the additional acreage would be:
120 acres × $2,300/acre = $276,000
Therefore, none of the given options a. $600,000, b. $322,000, c. $120,000, or d. $480,000 are correct. The cost would be $276,000 to acquire the entire NW¼ of the section.