The 123-acre May Farm in Woodstock is the latest enrollee in Connecticut’s farmland preservation program.
The sibling owners of the May Farm collected $305,022 — $228,767 from the state; $76,255 from town of Woodstock — in exchange for assigning the acreage’s development rights to the state, the state Agriculture Department said Wednesday. Ultimately, the state expects to be reimbursed an unspecified portion of that sum from the federal government, an agency spokesman said.
The farm on Woodstock Road grows hay and corn to support the dairy herd at neighboring Elm Farm, itself protected under the state program in 2014, Ag Commissioner Steven K. Reviczky said.
May is the 13th farm protected by the state in the current fiscal year, Reviczky said. The state has preserved a total of about 42,000 acres of farmland since the program was created in 1978.
The program allows farmers to convey their property’s development rights to the state, but still own and work the land and contribute to the local tax base.
Owners also may convey their land to others, but a permanent deed restriction assures the property will always remain available for agricultural production.
May Farm contains about 71 acres of prime and important farmland soils, capable of producing high crop yields. Dairy cows were raised on the farm until the late 1960s. It is now owned by four brothers in the May family: Douglas, Derek, Darrell and Dale.
The Mays have lived in the area for more than 300 years, and the farm has been in the family since 1929, said Dale May, a retired state wildlife biologist.
May is the 17th Woodstock farm preserved and is part of a cluster of protected farms in town totaling more than 1,300 acres.
The town of Woodstock and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service were partners preserving May Farm.
