ELLINGTON, Conn. – Growing feed for more than 1,100 milk cows requires land – lots of it. Oakridge Farms, one of the largest dairies in the state, has just that, thanks to Connecticut’s farmland preservation program.
“We’ve got to figure out how to feed them and any square inch land we either rent or own,” farm manager David Hartford said.
Of the more than 1,700 acres the farm the uses to grow corn and grass for silage, about 600 acres in neighboring Somers has been preserved by the state, meaning it can never be used for anything but agriculture.
“I wish there was more land that was in it,” Hartford said.
There soon could be.
The program, begun in 1978, has preserved more than 30,000 acres and last week got another boost when Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill that earmarked $6.5 million to save more farmland from being turned into housing developments or strip malls.
There are 214 farms enrolled and 11 more applying for the program, according to the state Department of Agriculture. If a farm qualifies after a lengthy application process that includes surveys and reams of legal paperwork, the state buys the development rights, ensuring farmland forever.
“It’s a permanent decision. It shows you that most farmers are conservation-minded,” program director Joseph J. Dippel said. “And we try to be fair and reasonable.”
The state will preserve a minimum of 30 acres of cropland and pays an average of $3,000 an acre, Dippel said. For some of the choice, most fertile land, the state has paid up to $10,000 an acre.
Finding a way to pay for the program this year, however, has not been without controversy. The bill, signed by Rell, sets aside $26 million to preserve farmland, open space and encourage affordable housing. It imposes a $30 surcharge on some land transactions to create the fund.
But House Minority Leader Robert Ward, R-North Branford, has said the plan amounts to an extra tax and an excuse for the Democrat-controlled legislature to spend more than they are allowed to under a constitutional cap. To get around the cap, the legislation “disburses” money for the land preservation efforts rather than “appropriates” the cash.
Ward has threatened to take the issue to court, a move that Rell supports, even though she signed the bill.
“There are legitimate questions as to whether the funding mechanism violates the spirit, if not the letter, of our spending cap requirements,” Rell said.
The new law will also allow the Agriculture Department to increase its staff by 10 percent to meet the demands of the preservation program and other similar to it. Agriculture Commissioner F. Philip Prelli said the state can work with municipalities through grants to expand farmers markets, identify niche farmers and help new farmers set up their operations or find land.
Prelli recently presented the state’s Dairy Farm of Distinction award to Oakridge Farms, owned by the Bahler family. Since the award’s inception 20 years ago, 64 dairy farms have been honored, but only 38 are still operating as dairy farms.
Farms must meet several criteria that include maintaining state and federal standards for cleanliness as well as being a good neighbor.
“We want to be good stewards and good neighbors,” said Hartford, the farm manager. “We work closely with the town of Ellington. We try to have it where if there’s a problem ecologically, someone will tell us. We like the town trooper to tell us if someone drives too fast or if we spill manure on the road. They like us farming here. We like them.”
Local officials agree.
“They’ve been a mainstay around the town since God knows how long,” said state Rep. Ted Graziani, D-Ellington. “An award like that, I feel is a golden nugget in our town. I have to tip my hat to the Bahlers.”
The sprawling farm is home to more than 2,300 head of cattle and ships about 90,000 pounds of milk or just over 11,000 gallons daily to the Stew Leonard’s processing plant in Norwalk. Hartford oversees a staff of about 25 workers with each day bringing a different challenge and reward.
The priority is always the cows – their comfort, their health, their care.
“They need to be treated with respect,” Hartford said while recently showing a visitor around the farm’s calf operation. Surrounded by dozens of young animals – some just a week old – Hartford makes it his business to know them as individuals.
The farm is up for another award this year. The New England Green Pastures award is given annually to an outstanding dairy farm for each of the New England states. Judges are scheduled to tour Oakridge Farms this month. The Bahlers won it in the 1940s, but not since, Hartford said.
“We would be thrilled to be a contender,” he said. “Our best resources are our people and our livestock. We’ve got tremendous genetics in livestock and tremendous people.”
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