Cuomo announces farmland-protection grants for farms in Onondaga, Tompkins counties

New York has awarded farms in Onondaga, Tompkins, and three other counties grant funding to complete projects to protect 2,200 acres of farmland.

The funding for the farmland-protection implementation grants totals $4.6 million, the governor’s office said in a Tuesday news release.

The purpose of a farmland-protection grant is to maintain the economic viability of the state’s agricultural industry and its supporting land base, while protecting the environmental and addressing landscape preservation issues associated with agriculture, according to Cuomo’s office.

The grants included more than $2.1 million for Hourigan Family Dairy in the town of Elbridge to protect nearly 1,300 acres.

The dairy operation owns 1,000 milking-age cows and raises its own replacement heifers, the governor’s office said.

It’s also one of the largest producers for LaFayette–based Byrne Dairy, Inc., selling more than 26 million pounds of milk annually to the milk processing plant located just 15 miles away, Cuomo’s office said.

The state also awarded Jerry Dell Farm of the town of Dryden more than $528,000 to protect 419 acres. It is recognized as the “largest certified organic dairy farm in the Northeast,” the governor’s office said.

The state also awarded grant funding to farms in Schuyler, Saratoga, and Suffolk counties, according to Cuomo’s office.

The funding is provided through New York’s Environmental Protection Fund, which the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets administers.

Since the program began, more than $128 million have protected about 51,000 acres of farmland on 220 farms across the state, the governor’s office said.

The New York Agriculture and Markets Law authorizes a state agricultural and farmland-protection program to provide both financial and technical assistance to counties and municipalities who are developing and implementing agricultural and farmland-protection plans, according to the governor’s office.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com