TheLandJournal.com

What would a farm, ranch, or general rural land owner want his or her property to border?  I’m sure, more land of the same type, right?   

What about someone in a housing community?  Many wouldn’t mind their back yard being against a farm, ranch, or just open land right?

Well, it’s not always “Love Thy Neighbor” when the two are next to each other.  As land is sold off and developed expanding the city reach with housing communities, the horizon is forever changed where the rooster crows.  Land owners may find themselves dealing with more trespassers, random trash dumps, and complaints and legal action taken against them for the way their cattle or other livestock smell.  Can’t we all just get along?  Well, unfortunately no, not without laws in place to protect.

John Diamond, a land owner of Clinton, Utah recalls another farmer with 6,000 head of cattle chased off as subdivisions were put up around him.  The complaints to the city and attempts to force policies and limits to his farm were just too much.  This is why John Diamond and his wife Marilyn applied for agricultural protection for their land in Davis County.  They’re taking these precautions due to some land bordering them that’s now been sold off to be developed into housing lots that will put houses as close as 30 feet from his feed lot.  Diamond said homebuyers often don’t realize what living next to a farm will entail. “People want the rural feel, but they don’t want the things that go with the rural feel,” he said. “Cattle smell. Horses smell.”

During weaning time, calves can bellow for a week or 10 days, John Diamond said. And this isn’t lowly mooing. It’s frantic crying from separated calves and mothers. Then there’s the irrigating and baling, which have to be done at night because you have to trap moisture in hay before it’s baled.  For this, they get the police called on them.
The state law that allows the Diamonds to apply for protection indicates that farmers were there first, so everyone who builds homes near farms should expect farm smells and sounds. Plats for any subdivisions within 300 feet of a protected area are supposed to be recorded with a special note that says residents aren’t going to get anywhere if they complain about normal farming operations.

Jed Diamond, John and Marilyn’s son, raises 4,600 pheasants for hunting inviting many to participate.  Even though they keep 600 feet from homes, the hunter complaints still come in.

Since the Utah Legislature enacted the agriculture protection law in 1994, 178,862 acres have been protected.

Resource:

Desert News