Because a portion of the land is under lease to the Arno family until 2013, the land is being offered in two parcels-21 acres that can be sold separately for $800,000 and the remaining 200-acre farm for $2,500,000. "But," the ad assures perspective buyers, "there are several fabulous estate sites that could be selected and developed for a home before the lease expires."
"If you buy it, you get a tenant," Chris Garrity of Bain Real Estate said, adding the possibility that "someone could buy it and want [the Arnos] there.."
He said there has been some interest in the land since it was listed two months ago.
The Arno family has farmed the land for 40 years, ever since David Arno and his late wife, Mary, took up farming. Mr. Arno, born and raised on a dairy farm in Champlain, N.Y, came to Connecticut to work at the state hospital in Newtown. "I didn't like that much," he said Tuesday as he worked on a piece of farm machinery in his farmyard.
The Arnos eventually leased their farm from Datlva Vagts, whose family has owned the land since the early 1940s. Today, the Arno operation spreads far beyond the 200 acres near Hatch Pond to include a total of 500 acres. "Corn land" is rented from the Kent Land Trust along the Housatonic River, and "hay land" is found in Macedonia, on Skiff Mountain and in neighboring New York state.
Mr. Arno, assisted by his son, David, with occasional assistance from his other sons, John and James, has a herd of 165 cows, 60 of which are milkers.
The farm appears to be thriving, but Mr. Arno said that the current milk pricing structure dictated by Congress makes it more and more difficult. Congress allowed the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact to sunset in 2001, under political pressure from Midwest farmers. The compact required milk processors to pay a higher price for Northeastern milk, where costs of production are higher than in the Midwest. The additional monies went into a fund that was paid to New England farmers to make them more viable. But the compact was bitterly opposed by Midwest farming interests and the processors, who often charged consumers far more than the increase needed to compensate the farmers.
Efforts to recreate the compact have been unsuccessful in the eight years since it lapsed, and in January the federal government dropped the wholesale price for milk from $20 per hundredweight to $11.30, meaning that Connecticut farmers must sell their milk for about $1 per gallon, while their average cost of production is $1.90.
This inbalance will result in the loss of another 10 to 20 farms in 2009, State Rep. Bryan Hurlburt (D-Tolland), the vice chairman of the state's Environment Committee, predicted earlier this year, calling for pricing reform. "Milk prices are so bad right now," said Mr. Arno, admitting that he has thought about going out of business a few times. "But I guess it is in my blood," he added, "and David wants to continue. But there is not much incentive to go into farming today."
Mr. Arno holds out hope that he will be able to continue farming even after his lease runs out. He said Mr. Vagts wants to see the property continue as farmland but is selling because his daughters are not interested in it.
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