Agricultural & Farmland Protection Plan

Towns of Nelson, Cazenovia and Lincoln

Farmer and Farmland Owner Questionnaire

March 2011

The Towns of Nelson, Cazenovia and Lincoln are working together to prepare Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plans for the three Towns. Your responses to the following questions will help the Steering Committee to evaluate opportunities and prepare strategies to support agriculture as a business and retain land for continued agricultural production.

1
Which of the following best describes you?
Full-time farmer
Part-time farmer
Landowner who rents or leases land to farmer
Landowner whose land was not used for agricultural production in 2010
Other, please specify
2
Where is your land? (Check all that apply)
Town of Nelson
Town of Cazenovia
Town of Lincoln
Other, please specify
3
If some of your land was rented or leased,
a.   who worked the land in 2010?
b.   what was the land used for? (Type of crops, pasture, etc.)

If you do not farm your land, you are done.  Thank you! 

The next questions are for farmers.

4
What are the principal products produced on the farm (corn, soybeans, hay vegetables, dairy, other livestock, etc.)?
5

What other products are produced on the farm?

6

Does your farm operation use any rented land?

Yes
No
7

If your rented land were no longer available, how would that affect your farm operation?

Serious impact
Moderate impact
Slight or no impact
8

If additional land were available at an affordable price, would you be interested in:

 

Buying more land

Yes
No
Maybe
9

Renting more land

Yes
No
Maybe
10

When you retire from farming, what is most likely to happen to the farmland you own?

Family member will continue to farm the land
Land will be sold to another farmer
Land will be sold for development
Other, please specify
11

What are the biggest challenges to the long-term viability of your farm operation? (Check all that apply)

Lack of suitable land at an affordable price
Excessive government regulations
Labor issues (availability/cost)
Residential neighbors make it difficult to farm
Low commodity prices/High production costs
Poor drainage / maintenance of drainage improvements
Lack of public understanding of the value of agriculture to the community and the regional economy
Next genereation of family not interested in farming
Other, please specify
For the following statements, please indicate your thoughts (a,b,c,d or e) regarding support for actions that could be undertaken by the Town, County or State government to support agriculture.
12
Public purchase of development rights to farmland
   Strongly support
    Moderately support
    Moderately oppose
    Strongly oppose
e     Don't know / Need more information
13

Private conservation easements on farmland

   Strongly support
    Moderately support
    Moderately oppose
    Strongly oppose
e     Don't know / Need more information
14
Land use regulations that limit development in areas with high quality farmland
a    Strongly support
    Moderately support
    Moderately oppose
    Strongly oppose
e     Don't know / Need more information