Leaving a Farm Legacy

Owners of farmland or ranchland face many questions about the future. Who will someday take care of the land? Will it still be farmed?

Jennifer McComas, who inherited her family’s 560-acre Kentucky farm, found answers through American Farmland Trust’s Farm Legacy Program.

Jennifer contacted American Farmland Trust about her family’s farm overlooking the Cumberland River, a beautiful property with fields, hollows, and a big pond. Her great-grandfather purchased the hay, corn, and cattle farm in the early 1900s.

“My mother was born on the farm. I spent my young years there,” Jennifer says. “I was all over the farm as a child. I rode horses and that was important to me.”

Jennifer transferred her farm to American Farmland Trust to help save it from development. “There’s tremendous pressure on land here,” she says. “I think protecting the farm was the most important thing to do. Development is not the answer.”

Don’t hesitate to think about preserving your farmland. There’s not going to be more of it made.

American Farmland Trust will protect the land and is working with the two brothers who currently farm it.

“That farm was the best thing I ever had,” Jennifer says. “I know I’ve done what’s right—to allow the farm to continue being a working farm. I think it’s so important for our environment and the future. The trees and plants are needed to absorb carbon and prevent flooding.”

Jennifer hopes to be a model for other American Farmland Trust members who own agricultural land. “Don’t hesitate to think about preserving your farmland,” she says. “There’s not going to be more of it made.”