Introduction to Farmland Leasing
Down To Earth Workshop Series
Saturday, October 22nd , 2011 10:00am - 12:00pm
Farm Credit East – 190 Route 9H, Claverack
Free
An introduction to our Farmer-Landowner Match Program and farmland leasing. Two of our farming mentors will discuss evaluating land for various agricultural uses. Followed by a panel discussion with farmers and landowners currently engaged in rental relationships.
- 10:00 – 10:15: Introduction, overview of matching program and land leasing
- 10:15 – 11:00: Volunteer farmers to discuss evaluating land and basics of renting land
- 11:00 – 11:40: Panel discussion with matched participants
- 11:40 – 12:00: Questions and highlights of upcoming advanced workshop
Speakers Include:
Barry Chase
Barry Chase and his wife Rosey are dairy farmers who own 350 acres of land. Their farm is located in Ancram and Pine Plains, NY, and 140 acres of the farm was recently protected with a conservation easement held by the CLC. Barry has farmed for his entire life, purchasing the family farm after his father’s death in 1972. The farm grows hay, corn and oats to feed the registered Holstein herd. They only need to purchase soybeans to balance the protein in the grain. Presently he is semi-retired and rents the cow barn to another farm family who milks 60 cows. They rent some of the better land to him and he grows the corn and chops it for them. His herd now consists of 2 head of cattle, 16 chickens, and 3 pigs. Barry and Rosey’s son Rory recently returned to the family farm and has established a probiotic cheese operation on the property known as The Amazing Real Live Food Company.
Jean-Paul Courtens
Jean-Paul is a former trustee of CLC and serves on CLC’s Agricultural Committee. Jean-Paul lives in Kinderhook with his wife Jody Bolluyt and his three children. Jean-Paul and Jody own and operate Roxbury Farm which was founded in 1990. Roxbury Farm is a 310 acre, diversified operation producing vegetables, hay, beef, lamb and pork. The farm is a CSA with 1200 member families in NYC, Westchester County, Columbia County and the Capital District. Roxbury Farm, in collaboration with Equity Trust, implemented a model lease to ensure long term land and housing affordability. Jean-Paul completed four years of training at Warmonderhof in the Netherlands in biodynamic agriculture. He currently serves as a board president of the Biodynamic Association and works in partnership with the Open Space Institute, NEON, the Cornell Soil Health Team, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Jean-Paul and Jody were the 2004 recipients of the Patrick Madden award for outstanding sustainable practices and education
Jennifer Philips
Jennifer started raising sheep in 2002 on a rented farm adjacent to the house she owned in Stuyvesant. She added a heritage breed of beef cows, Devons, to the operation two years later. She farmed for 7 years on the original farm, which was owned by non-farming city folks. She had no lease, but they allowed her the use of about 35 acres in return for the work she put into it and one freezer lamb a year. In the summer of 2008, she found a farm and near-by house to rent in Clermont, much closer to Bard College where she teaches part time. The landowner, also a non-farmer, and she made an agreement on a long-term lease and in January of 2009 she moved the farm and household to Clermont. She is renting a total of 89 acres and a good barn. She pays $30/acre for 60 grazable acres plus $200 year for the barn. In the winter before she moved the animals, she invested $18,000 in permanent fencing for the winter paddock and winterized water. The landowner is forgiving the annual rent until she has purchased back these capital improvements, which will take 9 years. They therefore signed a lease for 9 years, with the expectation that it will be renewed after that. The livestock are strictly grassfed, and pasture management is of utmost importance to the farm. Jennifer’s primary management strategy is to brush hog and graze in a rotational grazing system. She direct markets all her products (meat, wool comforters, and sheepskin pelts), and has turned a profit on her sheep for the last several years. The cows will take longer to break even but she expects to reach that point soon.
Anthony Mecca
Anthony Mecca and Jennifer Carson manage Great Song Farm, an 80 member draft animal powered vegetable CSA in Milan, NY. After years and many attempts to find the right situation while working on and apprenticing with other farms, they met up with Larry and Betti Steel late last summer and have formed a strong and supportive relationship. The Steels have been open and welcoming in many ways from the beginning, and it was only when Anthony was ready to begin a real conversation, discussing mutual interests rather than simply making demands, feeling entitled to certain treatment because of his status as a poor, young farmer, that the right situation presented itself. Their lease stipulates that the farmers will not pay rent until the farm is able to provide them a living wage, which has certainly helped to minimize the financial strains inherent in the early phases of starting a farm business. Anthony and Jen lease and manage 88 acres with a barn, around 30 of which are open with 5 acres cultivated for vegetable growing and the remainder available for grazing their draft horses and young working cows and making hay.
Roger Philips
Lorelle and Roger Phillips sold their Stuyvesant farm to David and Melinda Rowley in April 2011. They purchased it in 1995, and it has been in organic agriculture since then. The land was farmed by Willie Denner and Claudia Kenny and then Daniel Hayhurst before the Rowleys. Jennifer Phillips (also a speaker at this workshop) raised sheep on the farm simultaneously with the vegetable farmers. Willie and Claudia now have their own farm, Little Seed Gardens, in Chatham and Daniel is farming Connecticut. Jennifer now raises sheep on her own place in Dutchess County, and will be speaking about her arrangement as well. Lorelle and Roger find joy in having their land spawn so many successful farmers. They are thrilled that the land will always be farmland, per an agreement with Scenic Hudson and The Columbia Land Conservancy.