Ferguson Farm ~ 71 acres, Randolph County
Ike and Pat Ferguson. Donation of Conservation Easement.
“I was talking to my grandsons about the farm and I told them I might be messing up their inheritance. They said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going to put this in an easement so the land can never be developed. It will always be farmland.’ They thought a little and said, ‘Well that’s the way we want it. We don’t want it developed.’” ~ Ike Ferguson
In June 2000, the first farm in PLC’s Liberty-Randleman
Farmland Protection Corridor was protected. Mostly open pastureland, this
former tobacco farm has been farmed by Ike’s family for more than 100 years.
The conservation easement ensures that the agricultural soils are protected and
that non-agricultural development is prohibited on the property. The love this
family has for farming and their land is most obvious when walking the farm with
the family and listening to their stories.
Project funding provided by the landowner, Syngenta Cropland Division and the NC Farmland Preservation Trust Fund via the Conservation Trust for North Carolina.