The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station recently concluded that Connecticut could carve out a reputation as a premier producer of midget, “personal-sized” watermelons weighing as little as three pounds.
Also shrinking, apparently, are the values of the patches where the fruit might be grown.
For the first time in more than a dozen years, the property value of Connecticut”™s farms dropped this year, albeit at a less precipitous rate than home prices, one of only five states where that occurred in the continental United States.
Farm values in Connecticut fell 1.7 percent between 2007 and 2008 to $11,500 per acre, still the third highest total in the nation according to estimates published in August by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), despite Northeast developers pushing overall value in the region up 1.6 percent; and food prices hitting record highs.
In neighboring New York state, the value of farm land jumped 8.1 percent between 2007 and 2008.
The sharp increase in New York and nationally has come against a pronounced pause in commercial and residential real estate business. The USDA attributes the increase to a smorgasbord of factors, including strong commodity and livestock prices, favorable interest rates, and tax incentives and farm programs.
Fairfield County is home to fewer than 300 farms, according to USDA, which in 2002 had 12,800 acres total. Those farms harvested $30 million in crop or livestock revenue, or $105,000 per farm on average, eking out a $34,000 profit on average. Just one farm had more than 500 acres and the median farm had a mere 16 acres.
The smallest farmers got a break in late September, after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation temporarily to suspend a provision in the 2008 federal farm bill that would have stopped farmers from receiving commodity payments if they have fewer than 10 acres.
Fairfield County has a meager population of livestock ”“ 2,500 chickens, 650 cows, 350 sheep and 40 pigs at last count ”“ but Gov. M. Jodi Rell sees those animals as carrots to attracting people to visit the region.
Under an “agritourism” program, Connecticut highlights farm activities, including this month at several Fairfield County farms: Beardsley Cider Mill & Orchard and Jones Family Farms and Winery in Shelton; Blue Jay Orchards and Hollandia Nursery in Bethel; Plasko”™s Farms in Trumbull; Silverman”™s Farm in Easton; and White Silo Farm and Winery in Sherman.
The state has also been touting its farm stands and markets, and not just for tourists. In late September, Westport-based Wholesome Wave Foundation Charitable Ventures received a $60,000 federal grant to support expanded use of farmers markets locally, part of $3.4 million doled out to 85 organizations nationally. WWFCV plans to use the money to establish electronic systems to allow low-income people to use federal food assistance funding at farmer”™s markets.
The state continues to work to support the markets”™ suppliers, as well. Since 2002, the Hartford-based Connecticut Farmland Trust has been working to preserve the state”™s farms by obtaining easements on more than 1,200 acres of property at 14 beef, dairy and hay farms across the state, as well as an orchard and a Christmas tree nursery. None of the farms is located in Fairfield County, though the group has been working on an easement purchase in New Milford outside Danbury.
In July, Whole Foods Markets Inc. donated 5 percent of net sales at its stores in Greenwich and Westport to the Connecticut Farmland Trust.
With a similar goal, the state-run Farmland Preservation Program marked its 30th anniversary this year, preserving 1,200 acres at 11 farms last year at a cost of $5.5 million. The program has set aside just 300 acres on three farms in Fairfield County.
