Agenda - 06-03-1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Pal Closely related to the above situation is one in which the farmer is deceased, and the heirs wish to continue farming. The burden of estate and inheritance taxes on the heirs often causes farms to be sold or broken up into smaller parcels. This situation occurs because much of the farmer's land is tied up in land holdings whose value contributes significantly to estate and inheritance taxes. Purchasing the development rights may thus enable the heirs to pay the taxes and continue the farming operation. It may also help in those situations where one heir wishes to continue farming and his /her siblings do not. Development rights acquisition will allow the siblings to obtain their share of the inheritance without the necessity of selling the farm. Probability of Conversion Points Property subject to potential forced sale 10.0 Property subject to estate settlement sale 7.5 Property actively marketed for voluntary sale 5.0 Another situation may involve a farmer who simply wishes to retire, and he /she has no heirs or they do not wish to continue the farming operation. The farm may then be actively marketed, and the sale proceeds used as the farmer's retirement fund. This situation differs from the preceding two in that the farmer does not wish to continue farming. Acquisition of the development rights will enable the farmer to establish his /her retirement fund and sell the land for its agricultural use value. Size of Farm The LESA Handbook suggests that a feasible farm size be determined before assigning points on the basis of farm size. In Orange County, tobacco is the major cash crop, but corn for feed is. the largest crop in terms of quantity. In terms of feasible farm size, tobacco can be grown on 50 acres of land, and a farmer can make a decent living. For a dairy farmer to maintain a similar standard of living, 100 dairy cows would be needed, requiring 200 -300 acres of land for pasture and feed crops. Because of the variation in land area requirements', it is difficult to establish a feasible farm size. Anotlrerc , -. indicator of feasible farm size may be obtained from the 1987 C-enags of Agriculture. In 1987,, the average farm size in Orange County was 155 acres. This is considerably higher than Forsyth County (75 -acre average) where a purchase of development rights program was initiated in 1987. The high average farm size is further indicated in Figure 1 below. In 1987, approximately 56 percent of all farms in Orange County were less than 100 acres in size. In Forsyth County, nearly 80 percent of all farms were less than 100 acres in size. Orange County's high average farm size is also attributable to the greater proportion of farms over 100 acres in size.