DANVILLE — Just another example of Knox County’s success with getting farmland preservation designations. is how Doug Givens of the Philander Chase Corp. characterizes the fact that the Jerry Mickley farm won a preservation grant this year. However, it is a surprise winner.
“We’ve now gotten these designations every year for the last several years,” Givens said. “The nice thing about Jerry’s is its location. He’s between Howard and Danville, in an area with some really significant farm operations. It’s right there on a main road, and really a nice piece of property. It’s 385 acres.”
Land under consideration for a preservation grant is scored on a number of different categories, and it was initially felt Knox County’s entrants might not make it based on winning scores from last year. However, Knox County was reassigned to a different quadrant, the southeastern one, where the soil is not up to the standards of central and northwestern Ohio. Soil quality is an important aspect looked at in the designation process, and that helped bump Mickley’s farm up to a winning level.
“Jerry’s farm is a century farm, too,” Givens said. “It’s been in the family for more than 100 years. It’s pretty significant to have a farm preserved in that part of the county. The partnership in the process was helpful. The county commissioners helped a lot, the Knox Soil & Water Conservation District, regional planning and the Howard Township Trustees — they all had to sign off on this.
“A lot of people have to get in on the act in this, and it really is a significant feather in Knox County’s cap that we got another one.”
Mickley was a little surprised he received the designation, but felt that it wasn’t totally out of the ballpark.
“We have been climbing up on the ladder for several years. It’s based on a point system,” Mickley said. “As they take [the farms] with the highest points, it will get whittled down. As long as there aren’t a whole lot of brand new applications, the top ones keep coming off.”
Mickley’s farm on Howard-Danville Road consists of three tracts. The one Mickley lives on with his wife is the century farm.
Mickley feels strongly about the goals and aims of the Farmland Preservation Program. To him, it’s about the future of agriculture.
“I think it’s very important, and I wish there was more of it,” he said. “Too many farms get divided up, in my opinion. Sometimes someone with a farm has it as a retirement investment, and they want to get the highest dollar for the land. The best way to do it is to divide, say 100 acres, in 10-acre lots. That’s the way you get the best dollar.”
Mickley said this not only makes it difficult to farm land that has lots cut out of it, it also makes it difficult for young people who want to get into farming.
“It’s a very unwise use of our farmland,” he said. “We need laws that prevent unwise use of our farmland. And when it gets sold like that, it’s hard for young guys starting out in farming to compete. They can’t compete with $10,000 an acre. We really need to do more to preserve the farmland.”
