Montgomery County Planning Department

“Future of Farming” Workshop Summary-

The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and Planning and the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy invited interested farmers to a workshop to discuss Conservation Easements, the 2009 Farmland Protection Implementation Grant (FPIG) Program and for an “open mike” forum on the “Future of Farming” in Montgomery County.

Attendees: Hobart Pickard, Appleridge Farms, Phil Arnold, Arnold Feed, Jean Gardenier, Patrick Clear, Richard Voeiruren, Riest Pustolka, Joan Eddy, John Lay, Ken Aucompaugh, Mark Robert, Nicholas Herting, Ellis Dennison, Charles McClumpha, Marcy Madis, Kerry McAvoy, Kevin O’Connor, Carrie Buetow, Scott and Kathie Ryan, Ralph Thomas, Bruce Castka, Glen Witecki, Ed Munger, Sue Wojteurski, Larry Kahre, Ken Peavey, Ray Dykeman, Gwen Hyde, David Balbian, Marilyn Smith, Doug Greene, Randy Siver.

Senior Planner Greene thanked the participants for coming to the meeting and said he wanted to make a few comments before opening up the discussion to everyone. First, he said that the County’s Agricultural Protection Plan was now 10 years old and that an update was needed. The Planning Office was going to seek grant funding to help and that the update process would be started later in the year. The Planning Office was also going to conduct a countywide comprehensive plan for Montgomery County. Agriculture was going to be a major component of the plan.

Doug said he had spoken with David Behm of the New York State Department of Ag and Market a few weeks earlier. David discussed how Ag and Markets was interested in getting proposals from counties or local municipalities on alternative ways to protect farmland and improve the viability of farming. The current Farmland Protection Implementation Grant (FPIG) program was working well but shortcomings were being recognized; such as: the FPIG was very slow process, was very expensive, would take a long time to protect large areas of farmland and there was no guarantee that the protected farm would keep farming.

As a result of this conversation, Mr. Greene thought it would be a good idea to hear directly from farmers on what was on their minds. For example, what problems were they facing, what was working well for them and what ideas did they have on ways to improve the situation. He emphasized that the discussion was meant to be a sharing of opinions, not a debate and he urged everyone to respect others opinion. With that said, Mr. Greene opened the floor to comments.

Comments received at meeting:

Tax assessments too high.
Need to lower the minimum gross farm revenues from $10,000 to something more reasonable. It was mentioned that New Jersey and Massachusetts used a much lower gross revenue to establish a base rate for an active farm.
There are no tax benefits in owning woodlands. Trees are important in creating O2.
The price of farm products needs to increase.
Not happy with large farms getting subsidies.
Someone should do a follow-up survey on how State FPIG funds are used.
Small farms especially need help. Think about how small businesses are being helped. What about small farmers getting some help?
Taxes need to be fair.
Beechnut received too much Government help in moving to the Town of Florida.
There should be some kind of incentives to help (small) farms start up.
Large farms are getting too much help.
It’s hard to get farm/agricultural loans from banks.
Montgomery County (Government) needs to put more importance on farming.
Tax assessments on farms are too high.
Montgomery County has the highest density of cows/per sq. mi. in the state.
We (farmers) need to think “outside the box”.
There’s a big inequity in farming.
We need to take advantage of local farm knowledge.
The County needs to be proactive in farming.
Small loans need to be available to farmers.
Local Government needs to be involved.
There should be an Ag Planner in Montgomery County.
One farmer spoke up to defend his farm being large and he felt strongly that large farms were not the problem. He employed 30 people on his farm and those wages and his expenditures made a large contribution to the Town and County’s revenues.
Too much tax on farms.
The Cornell Milk program has helped.
The cost of services is much higher for suburban development than agricultural land.
One dairy farmer stated he was losing $360 a day with his 98-cow operation.
The current economic situation will certainly lead to a loss of farming operations, a loss of farmland.
The effect of supply and demand on farming will lead to a loss of farms.
There have been a large number of Amish farmers settling in Montgomery County.
Marilyn Smith, Director, said the Cornell Cooperative Extension had started an Agricultural Economic Development Committee, which sponsors 2 successful farm markets each year. Her office also had a part time employee who worked on Agriculture Economic Development programs.
Consumers and Beechnut need to buy locally grown produce.
There needs to be more planning for agriculture.
Farmers need to network more.
One participant mentioned that Montgomery County had the highest density of dairy cows in the state.
There was a critical exchange regarding the high amount of tax “breaks” that Beechnut or AMD (in the Capital District region) were receiving from the state as compared to what farmers were not getting.
There needs to be more county involvement in agriculture.
A complaint was made against certain local citizens who opposed wind turbine projects that could help create revenues for both farmers and the municipalities.
Too much funding (tax revenues) is going downstate and not enough is being spent upstate.
One person complained that small farms were at a disadvantage compared to larger farms.
There was a concern that some local zoning laws made it difficult to farm or to have small private wind turbines for example.
Junkyards were a problem in some agricultural areas.
One person mentioned that Amish Farmers were a tourist attraction in some places.
There should be more opportunities made to farmers.
Cornell Extension was getting more funding, which was being used for support staff and an Agricultural Economic Development Committee.
David Balbian, Dairy Specialist for Cornell Extension, said that there was a rising interest in young people looking to get into farming.
Doug Greene mentioned that a group in Otsego County was working a program called Land Link that matched up land owners of underutilized farms with neighboring farmers or people wanting to get started in framing.
There is a growing (no pun intended) interest in local consumers buying locally produced farm products.
Corey Nellis, Soil and Water Conservationist, said Beechnut used to buy large amounts of local produce.
There had been many subdivisions among Amish farmers.

Future of Farming Summary Conclusions:

Agriculture is the predominant land use in Montgomery County and is second in revenues.
There is a strong sentiment that the County is not recognizing the difficulty farmers are having.
Large businesses have an unfair advantage over farmers in getting business loans, business planning and help in marketing.
The future of farming is one of more and more farms going out of business and an associated increase in vacant farmland.
There is little development pressure on farmland.
The tax base agricultural tax exemption on agricultural land should be re-evaluated and the $10,000 gross farm revenues is too high.
Farmers need help in promoting local farm products and establishing markets for those products.
The County is currently supporting agriculture but those funds could be utilized more effectively. This year, the County will spend $27,000 to support the Cornell Extension Office’s Ag Economic Development efforts. Partly for the part time staff position and partly to fund the 2 annual farm markets sales events. In addition, the county has committed $50,000 as matching funds for the Farmland Protection Implementation Grant program.

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(Montgomery County Planning Home: http://www.co.montgomery.ny.us/planning)