BATACCHI FARM

The Batacchi APR in the Sheffield-Egremont Agricultural, Ecological & Scenic Corridor

The Sheffield Land Trust is working with the Batacchi family to protect 270 acres of farmland and wildlife habitat with an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR). The farmland has been in the Batacchi family for generations and the family wants to ensure that the land continues to be available for farming and wildlife without having to sell or develop it. No only is this APR important to saving the farmland, it is essential for the viability of the Larkin dairy farm which uses the land.

This is the fourth generation of the family to farm the land. Today, the farm supports a 785-head herd, with 415 milking and dry cows, 150 bred heifers, 150 other heifers and 70 calves, which yielded over 6 million gallons in mil production last year. Forty (40) acres of the farm is in crops and 1880 in pasture; the remaining acreage supports woodland, wetlands, oxbows and a farm pond. The cows grazing the masture maintain rare tuttle habitat making this farm a prime example of how agriculture can be important to species survival. The cropland typically yeilds areound 21 tons of corn per acre and 10 tons of hay per acre. The dairy farm also uses the milking parlor, barns and shop on a separate parcel surrounded by the farmland- it would not be possible to run the dairy without the surrounding land.

Sheffield is fortunate to have a full range of farms from small to large, centuryold to brand new, conventional to organic, commodity to retail (CSAs, farmstands and farmers’ markets), and out local farms supply local restaurants and grocery stores. Smaller farms depend on larger farms like the Larkins’ for help with machiinery and equipment, hay and manure to provide enough business for equipment dealers to service our region. Larger farms benefit from the more intimate relationship that the smaller farmers build with the public in maintaining support for farming.

Dairy farms are at the heart of our region’s heritage and maintain the landscape that gives us our quality of life and attracts visitors from around the world. Successfully completing the Batacchi APR will create a new eastern anchor for the Sheffield-Egremont Agricultural, Ecological and Scenic Corridor, a 5,000-acre area in northwest Sheffield and southeast Egremont that SLT has crreated to help conserve a crucial landscape of farms, wildlife habitat and water quality.