Hadley Brothers Farm I, II, and III ~ 145 acres, Alamance and Chatham Counties
Jeanette Hadley, James Hadley, and
Gary & Teresa Hadley.
Bargain Sale of
Conservation Easements.
As one of North Carolina’s top industries, agriculture is an important part of the state’s economy. Consequently, the protection of farmland ensuring that the land’s capacity to be used for agriculture is not lost supports the state’s economy. However, for a farmer making the decision to permanently protect one’s farm can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand the easement ensures that the land’s agricultural capacity will not be lost through its conversion to non-agricultural development. On the other hand, the land is one of the farmer’s main assets and by granting an easement over it the value of the land is diminished because the easement prohibits development to non-agricultural uses.
The solution to this issue for many farmers is to compensate them for part or all of the development rights that they are giving up through the easement. By selling the development rights granted in the conservation easement, the farmer is provided with cash to use as best suits their needs. For the Hadley Family, selling the development rights to part of their farm provided them with capital needed to successfully transition from a traditional dairy farm to raising heifers for other dairy farms.
Adjacent to previously
protected Hickory Grove Dairy Farm, Hadley Brothers Farm encompasses several
tracts of rolling pastures interspersed with forests and meandering tributaries
to Cane Creek. In 2001, PLC purchased conservation easements over three tracts
farmed by the Hadley Family in a bargain sale transaction. With the completion
of these three easements, 484 contiguous acres on five farms in the Sutphin Mill
Community have been permanently protected.
Project funding provided by the landowners and the North Carolina Farmland Preservation Trust Fund via the Conservation Trust for North Carolina.
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