DeGolyers Protect Award Winning Farm Adjoining Letchworth State Park
A significant farmland protection project has been completed by Maureen DeGolyer and her daughter and farm operator Meghan DeGolyer Hauser in partnership with Genesee Valley Conservancy.
A total of 816 acres in the Town of Castile, Wyoming County, are now protected by conservation agreements. The protected farmland is comprised of 36% USDA Prime soil and 48% NY State Important soils.
Table Rock Farm, owned by Maureen and Meghan, is a 5th generation farm.
Priority Farmland
Table Rock Farm was selected as the top priority project by Wyoming County during the 2021 farmland protection process. The county program serves a dual purpose to educate farmland owners on what farmland protection is and how it would impact their farm operation, as well as a means to objectively rank interested farms using data such as soil quality, development pressure, productivity, and acreage to prioritize the County’s efforts to protect high quality ground that is the basis for the County’s agricultural economy.
Letchworth State Park
One of the unique features of this farm is its geographic location directly adjacent to Letchworth State Park. The farm shares more than two miles of boundary with the Park. The original farm actually reached the Genesee River and included Wolf Creek. "We have early family photos of Scott DeGolyer farming beans on land that is now within the borders of Letchworth State Park," Meghan shared. Ninety acres of the family’s original farm became part of the well-known State park in the 1920s.
With the current farm just half a mile from the Genesee River, managing manure and soil resources has always been vitally important on this property.
Conservation Practices
The DeGolyer family has long focused on soil health and land enhancement and protection. The farm sold their plow decades ago and began using no-till practices. The result was a healthier soil profile, an abundance of earthworms and reduced erosion.
Other conservation practices in use include contour cropping, strip cropping, employing nutrient management plans, wildlife protection harvest systems, grass waterways, cover crops, planting green, slow-flow collection systems with filter strips and gravel drip lines under roof eaves to better manage how and where water flows.
Table Rock credits Cornell Cooperative Extension, PRO-Dairy and organizations like American Farmland Trust for providing cooperative opportunities to gain science-based answers to the farm’s questions about best management practices. "We've been able to study everything from planting a new season crop into a growing cover crop to reduce erosion, to learning our farm's carbon footprint through cooperative research," said DeGolyer Hauser. " Our local New York State Soil and Water team and USDA have always been very supportive of our conservation efforts. Farmers in New York State are so fortunate to have great individuals to work with that want to see farms improve and succeed."
In 2017, with the help of a New York State Climate Smart grant, Table Rock added a cover and flare system to their primary manure storage. This tool, along with changes in cropping and feeding practices and increased milk production, helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Table Rock and moved the farm closer to a Cornell-recommended whole farm nutrient balance.
"The key to the success of all these conservation practices is the Table Rock team," said DeGolyer Hauser. “Many of the practices we use were initially championed by our talented and conservation-minded employees. When everyone pulls together, we catch details, we have important conversations, the farm succeeds and soil health and conservation wins."
Award Winning Farm
Table Rock Farm received many recognitions over the years, including awards for outstanding agri-business, for cattle care and animal welfare, and for outstanding farm safety employer. One of the more prestigious recognitions was their 2021 AEM- Leopold Conservation Award presented by the Sand County Foundation and by New York State Agriculture and Markets.
The award, named for renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, recognizes farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water resources and wildlife habitat on working lands. Table Rock Farm was just the second recipient of this recognition in the State.
Farm Operation and Future
The farm is a dairy, milking some 1,250 Holsteins. Even with Meghan's retirement in 2024, the farm continues under the management of new owners, Dan and Nate Osborn. "It was really important to all of our family that the farm continue as a successful dairy and this partnership with the Genesee Valley Conservancy ensures that the farm started by my-great-grandparents and built and sustained by generations of DeGolyers will remain forever farmland," stated DeGolyer Hauser.
While the land is not transferring to the new owners at this stage, having conservation agreements in place will allow any future sale to come with the assurance that the land will remain agricultural and only used for farm purposes so the quality soils, sunshine, and rain, that is found here in Castile will continue to produce crops annually.
Summary
This conservation project involved accepting five conservation easements, including the Conservancy’s 161st in its 35-year history, as well as the 9th easement in the Town of Castile.
This project was the result of a collaboration between Genesee Valley Conservancy, Wyoming County Board of Supervisors, Wyoming County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, Town of Castile and New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
To-date, the farmland protection program of Genesee Valley Conservancy has resulted in over $51 million being invested in protecting over 27,000 acres of some of the State’s most productive agricultural lands, right here in the Genesee Valley.
Genesee Valley Conservancy works throughout the Genesee River watershed to protect high quality habitat, open space and farmland for the community. The Conservancy now oversees the protection of 38,002 acres.
Landowners in the Genesee River watershed interested in pursuing conservation options for their property, be it farmland, habitat, or a potential public nature preserve, should contact Genesee Valley Conservancy for more information.
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Genesee Valley Conservancy is a nationally accredited non-profit conservation organization working to protect the habitat, open space and farmland in the Genesee River watershed. Over 38,002 acres of natural habitat and productive farm and forest land have been conserved by Genesee Valley Conservancy in partnership with private landowners. The organization also owns nature preserves open to the public for recreation and education. For more information visit www.geneseevalleyconservancy.org