With respect CJ, I don't belive this is correct at all.
I have been running plantations since the start, and mostly large ones with large amounts of acres and quartermaster bids.
Never once have the unsucessful bids been consolidated into a "new" bid for acres.
The fact that I am showing a listed bid for 4,448 acres @160 is unprecedented and coincides 100% with the timing of my lost acres and my report of the issue.
I cast the fertile acres on myself to make up the loss expecting the system to revert to trueat some point, it hasn't, and those missing acres are mine.