a retiring farmer can work with a would-be successor and learn about the operation as the transfer of ownership progresses. (More information is available at the International Farm Transition Network website: www.farmtransition.org)
Another option is buying land under an agricultural easement. An agricultural easement is a legal restriction voluntarily placed on a piece of farmland or ranch land ensuring that it will never be used for anything but farming. No strip malls, no housing developments.
Sometimes a farmer will have donated or sold those rights to a conservation land trust. The benefits for farmers are the immediate tax advantages and the long-term comfort of knowing the property will never become a shopping center. The benefit for the community is the preservation of open space.
New farmers can benefit because once an agricultural easement is in place, the property can only be resold at its agricultural value. That means new farmers can occasionally pick up an old farm or ranch in a pricey location for well below the fair market value. The drawback is there are restrictions on the types of buildings allowed on the property—possibly including the house you want to live in. And, if you decide to resell the property, you’ll be restricted to the agricultural value, too. Buyers generally have to bid on a property and provide a farm plan that demonstrates continued productive use of the land in agriculture.
Canadian growers who need a place to farm can meet up with landowners to accommodate them via Landshare Canada, www.landsharecanada.com, an online agri-networking website that “brings together people who have a passion for home-grown food.” Users start by logging in and creating a profile. Then they post listings as either growers in a specific area looking for land to farm or as landowners in a specific area who will allow farming on their properties in exchange for maybe a cut of the harvest. The website also has a tutorial, sample legal agreements, blog postings, and maps showing where landowners and farmers want to get growing.
To find out about opportunities in your area, contact farm advocates and land conservation groups in local communities. (For additional information, see “Resources”.)
Gathering Additional Information
The previous sections illustrate just a few of the questions that need answers before you invest in an agricultural business. Some of the information, as discussed, is easy to glean from knowledge of your own property or the previous owner’s knowledge of his or her property. But thankfully, when you can’t get the answers you need, you’ll find plenty of reliable sources for information. If the former property owner is no longer available, you may be able to get information from a real-estate agent, local historian, community’s assessor office, or neighboring property owners. If the property was farmed before, state or county agricultural officials should be able to help you learn about its past.
Going Online
What do you do if you can’t find the information you need from farmers, neighbors, and others? You can search online.
For detailed technical reports on a property’s geology, land slope, drainage, average temperature, and rainfall, along with such valuable information as its suitability for crops, consult the national database that has been more than a century in the making. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) keeps detailed records on the physical characteristics of land across the United States, updating the information as new reports and surveys are completed. (See “Soil Surveys” for information on how to access the database.)
According to David Hvizdak, now retired soil scientist for the NRCS, soil surveys began in the late 19th century. Until recently, information was collected and recorded in hardbound reports that were used by farmers when buying or leasing land. Today, the information is posted online, where it can be updated by scientists and used by anyone with a computer and access to the Internet. The depth and accuracy of information has improved with recent onsite land surveys.
For farmers, the information will help determine things such as mean temperature, rainfall, length of the growing season, the soil’s capacity to drain or retain water, the depth of the topsoil and subsoil, and whether the land is stony, hilly, or prone to flooding. The survey can help steer you away from land that would be better left unfarmed.
Testing the Soil
Ask for the farmer’s record of soil tests to determine whether amendments are needed to increase soil nutrients, improve tilth and structure, or alter the pH (acidity/alkalinity). Also take your own soil samples around the property and send them to a reliable soil-testing laboratory for a thorough analysis. For your produce to be legally certified as organic, the land it came from must have been free from prohibited chemicals and non-organic produce for three years.
Keeping this in mind, it’s worth checking soil to make sure the land has not been damaged by recent years of chemical farming. You might find residual pesticides, poor quantity of organic material in the soil, erosion, or compacted soil. If the previous farmer used an integrated pest management (IPM) program on the property, the impact should be less severe. In an IPM program, farmers monitor their crops and use physical traps to determine an optimum time for action. Physical barriers, natural pests, and biological controls are used before spraying pesticides. It’s a practice that is more environmentally conscious than repeated chemical sprayings throughout the year.
These considerations are also important for farmers who are leasing land. Using organic amendments to increase soil fertility can be an expensive investment, often required over a period of years. You should only make such a costly soil investment if you can work out an acceptable long-term lease for the property. Otherwise, all of your hard work might just benefit the next person who rents the property.
Soil scientists take samples and make observances, then update the information online after others at the NRCS have approved it.
Soil Surveys
The NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) is actively surveying land—visiting sites to view the terrain, observing and documenting soil properties and morphology, and then posting the data online periodically upon undergoing a quality-assurance process by the agency. That makes their online database the most complete and up-to-date source of land information available.
To get started, visit the NRCS Web Soil Survey home page at websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov, and follow instructions on the page. If you’re more adept at maneuvering a tractor than a computer mouse, the home page contains a help link and instructions to walk you through the basic steps.
With a little practice you can learn to home in on a particular area that is displayed in a satellite image map on the screen. With tools at the top of the map, you can draw a rectangle or polygon around a block of land and designate that specific property as an “Area of Interest.” Once the land is highlighted on the map, click on tabs to access reports about the property. After completing the exercise and collecting pertinent information, you can save it for future use.
Canada’s National. Soil Database
Canadian growers have an online resource for soil information recorded by the Canadian Soil Information Service, CanSIS for short, which operates under the umbrella of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. To find soil data, go to. sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/ and follow the quick link to Soil Maps, then Soils of Canada link. You can view a map, click on the information in a text box in the left margin, and find such attributes as the land’s drainage, surface material (down to 1 yd. [1 m]), and the amount of organic and mineral content.
Other links on the page will take you to print maps that have been scanned and uploaded to the website. These maps have areas that are color coded and
