Nearly 126 acres of one of the state’s biggest dairy farms will be spared from nonfarm development under a pact between the farm’s owners and the state’s Farmland Preservation Program.
The state Department of Agriculture Tuesday announced that the Bahler family’s Oakridge Dairy sold development rights for about $1.4 million to 125.7 acres of their approximately 2,800-acre farm, most of it along Abbott and Middle roads in Ellington, near the East Windsor Line.
The setaside land was deemed prime for development, particularly as some other nearby parcels have been redeveloped into housing subdivisions, state and town officials said.
The acreage’s prime soils currently yields corn and hay, feed for the dairy’s herd of about 4,000 cows, Ag commissioner Steven K. Reviczky said.
Ag officials said the state paid about $1.1 million, with the town of Ellington kicking in about $370,000 under a cost-sharing partnership between the state ag agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the town. The federal conservation service is expected to reimburse the state for at least half of its expenditure, a state ag agency spokesman said.
Oakridge is the eighth farm to be protected under the state program this year.
Ten farms have been preserved in Ellington under the program since 1981, including the Kaminski, Pinney, Pease, Lanz, Culbro, DoJo, Myers and Charter farms, ag officials said.
