This might restore your faith in the youth of America - teen buys farm

hazmat · Jun 7, 2007

Mass Teen buys Farm

18 year old bought a farm in Westport, MA for $32K. Looks to be driving a new Kubota (or could be Kioti). Town helped out by buying development rights for $1M...

jinman · Jun 7, 2007

Good for Andrew! ...and good for ol' man Wood who pocketed a cool million for his 38 acre farm that needed a lot of work. I think I'd hang around to help Andy out for awhile too.

GANGGREEN · Jun 7, 2007

I suppose young folks all over America would be lining up to buy farms if they could buy them for pennies on the dollar like this boy apparently did. Even so, when I was his age, I probably wouldn't have had the gumption or the guts to sign on the dotted line for $32,000 so good for him. I hope he makes a good living there and stays forever.

Funny coincidence that I just saw this now because not 10 minutes ago I was discussing the possibility of buying out an aging beef farmer in this area with my 11 year old son. I told him that some day he could step into the "family business" and it would be a great deal for him. Know what his response was? "I don't even want cows here on our farm, let alone somewhere else!!!" Too funny.

mjarrels · Jun 7, 2007

Our farm is next to a 36 hole golf course... Isn't really a farm anymore when fairway square foot lots sell for $80,000. Just a matter of time.

mark

farmerjim · Jun 8, 2007

thats a great story. i wished i had been able to do that. if there was ever an arrangement like that for me i think i would quit my job and go for it. i think every rural town should look at that as a model for preserving land/farming heritage. where i'm from developement is ridiculous, they put a house wherever they can, and all the lots are easily 100k +, and the houses are the mcmansion type of 25ksqft or better. i get steamed just talking about it.

quicksandfarmer · Jun 9, 2007

My (hobby) farm is about two miles from his farm. It's a funny area. Conservation of farm land has been very successful in my town, about a quarter of the land area of the town is in conservation, including just about all of the developable agricultural land. The problem is that there has been no conservation of farmers, and this has become an expensive place to live, so there is no one to farm the land. So there's an awful lot of fallow land in town. If you wanted to go into the hay business you could mow all summer here and get paid to take the hay away. Earlier this year I was trying to get a farmer to use one of my fields, I told him he could have it for nothing if he didn't rip it up too bad, just to keep the weeds down. He thought about it for a while and then said no thanks.

I wish young Mr. Orr all the luck in the world, but I'm afraid he might have a hard time of it. But if he's successful, there's a lot of land in town that people would be happy to let him use.

And even if it doesn't work out, could you think of a better way to spend the summer after high school?!

Kubotasrking · Jun 9, 2007

I suppose young folks all over America would be lining up to buy farms if they could buy them for pennies on the dollar like this boy apparently did.

Maybe a a few...most Gen Yers aren't too interested in a 24/7/365 occupation.

These types of folks are the one's who mad(k)e our country great. An inspirational story.

connomx · Jun 9, 2007

[QUOTE These types of folks are the one's who mad(k)e our country great. An inspirational story.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, this story is about as inspirational as Paris Hilton's jail time. While I appreciate the young man's work ethic, using $1million in taxpayer money is just feel-good welfare. It never fails to amaze me that most taxpayers don't realize that conservation easements that remove land from the taxbase forever cost the rest of the taxpayers forever & prevent their kids from living in their hometown. Last month I drove 3700 miles between Las Vegas & Chicago, obviously not in a straight line. Went 60-70 miles between towns viewing endless farmland. "Conserving" a 20 acre lot in New England isn't going to make any difference in the world agricultural market. While I wish this young man a long & prosperous farm career, houses are the money crop where lots of people live. Incidently, during that 3700 miles, where I saw housing being built it was 5 - 10 units per acre. MikeD74T

Kubotasrking · Jun 9, 2007

connomx said:
Sorry, this story is about as inspirational as Paris Hilton's jail time. While I appreciate the young man's work ethic, using $1million in taxpayer money is just feel-good welfare. It never fails to amaze me that most taxpayers don't realize that conservation easements that remove land from the taxbase forever cost the rest of the taxpayers forever & prevent their kids from living in their hometown. Last month I drove 3700 miles between Las Vegas & Chicago, obviously not in a straight line. Went 60-70 miles between towns viewing endless farmland. "Conserving" a 20 acre lot in New England isn't going to make any difference in the world agricultural market. While I wish this young man a long & prosperous farm career, houses are the money crop where lots of people live. Incidently, during that 3700 miles, where I saw housing being built it was 5 - 10 units per acre. MikeD74T

Thanks for the tax lesson. If you have any other nuggets of wisdom that will reduce my tax burden, please let me know. I think you must have missed the facts reported in the article that it was private citizens that purchased land and followed rules that their elected representatives put in place that allow this to continue to be taxed as farmland. Sounds like capitalism in a representative republic to me. You may disagree with their investment choices...but it sounds like these wealthy investors have made some pretty good decisions in their lives with their money, so I doubt your opinion will influence them in any way.

I'm pretty proud of a kid who will work this hard..in fact, it's inspiring.

quicksandfarmer · Jun 10, 2007

The land was purchased by a "land trust." I don't know the details of this particular one, but most of them are governmental or quasi-governmental. In my town, which borders Westport, there is a 4% tax on all land transfers which goes to fund the land trust, and the members of the land trust are appointed by the town council. Our land trust has been in business for over 20 years and they've pretty much run out of land to buy, they're buying smaller and smaller parcels.

The land trust is more about stopping development than preserving farming. What the towns around here have realized is that for the most part converting farmland to residences is a fiscal disaster for the town. With a few exceptions, new residents cost more for schools and roads than they generate in taxes. Since the land trust was created land prices have increased spectacularly, since the supply of buildable land is constrained. It's hard to complain about a 4% tax when your land has increased ten-fold in value.

The problem in all this is you end up with a lot of land and no one to farm it, the farmers can't generally afford to live in town any more.