WEST WINDSOR: Leased farm land rate to increase 20 percent

By Allison Musante, Staff Writer
   WEST WINDSOR – For the first time in a decade, the township is seeking to raise the rate of leasing land to local farmers.
   With the support of the township Agricultural Advisory Committee, the Division of Land Use recommends renewing the four farmers’ leases for another five years and raising the cost per acre by 20 percent.
   The average per acre farm rent would rise from $45 to $54. Per acre rates, which are based on quality of soil and accessibility of cultivated fields, would range from $30 to $66.
   The county’s average rate is $30 per acre, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is $26 to $60 per acre, based on information provided by the Division of Land Use.
   The raise would generate revenue of more than $250,000 over the five-year lease period, said Sam Surtees, land use manager. Each year, the township has received about $42,000 in revenue for renting farmland. With the raise, the yearly revenue would increase to about $50,000.
   Though the township rates would be slightly higher than the state averages, Mr. Surtees said it’s because “West Windsor has some of the best farmland in the county.”
   When Mr. Surtees receives all four of the lease agreements, he will present them to the council with a resolution for approval. He hopes to have their approval by September, when farmers begin preparing for fall and spring planting. As of Tuesday, only one of the four lease agreements had been returned.
   Garrett Woolf, who leases 55 acres in the township for the Cranbury based Tricounty Turf Farm, said he intends to renew the lease which he has held for the past 10 years.
   ”I don’t have a problem with it because if you look at commodity prices now, our input across the board associated with producing crops, is going up,” he said.
   But he added that he wished the county would bid out the farmland to determine its proper value. The county – the only one in the state that doesn’t bid out farmland — contracts with local farmers who worked the properties prior to county acquisition.
   ”I think it would be more fair to the taxpayers to put all of it up for competitive bidding. That way I’d have an opportunity to bid on more township-owned farmland and it would give the opportunity to other farmers from outside the township,” he said. “So maybe if we had a bidding process the land would go for less than this 20 percent increase.” Mr. Woolf produces corn, soybeans and cultivated sod on his land off Rabbit Hill and Cranbury roads.
   Doug Tindall, owner of Farmdale Farms, said he intends to renew his lease of about 200 acres on Old Trenton Road, where he produces strawberries, corn and soybeans. He said the raise was reasonable enough to keep the land, which his family has farmed since 1914.
   ”I didn’t have a large complaint,” he said. “They haven’t raised it in a long time. Twenty percent would be large for one year, but it works out to about a 2 percent increase over the five years.”
   If the council decides to discontinue leasing the land, the township would become responsible for maintaining it.
   ”If the township didn’t want lease agreements anymore, we would have nearly a thousand tillable acres and the forest would probably grow back on it,” Mr. Surtees said. “And it would produce zero income. We’d go from $50,000 a year to nothing.”
   Because the farmers maintain the land at no cost to the township, Mr. Surtees believes this is the most feasible option for any farm operation.
   ”Being residents themselves only heightens the local farmer’s awareness of conservation practices in their hometown and encourages successful local farming practices,” he wrote to the council.
   Russ Everette of Everette Brothers Farm, declined to comment. Steve Jany, of Rustin Farms, could not be reached.