Brothers Protect Kingston Farm in Geneseo

Bob and Dan Kingston have permanently protected their Geneseo farmland by working with Genesee Valley Conservancy to ensure their sixth-generation family farm remains in agriculture. 

 A conservation easement placed on lands worked by Kingston Farms will protect 637 highly productive Genesee Valley acres from subdivision and development forever!

Prime Soils

The farm has outstanding soil quality.  Over 45% of these lands are classified as USDA Prime soil, the most productive around.  An additional 18% of their acreage is classified as NYS important soil. 

This was a key factor that made Kingston Farm the #2 ranked farm in Livingston County for protection in 2018, when it was selected as a project to move forward.

The Farm

The Kingston family has farmed in the Genesee Valley since the mid-1800's.  In 1919, Bob and Dan’s grandfather purchased the ‘home farm’ that remains the center of the farm today.  The farm is primarily a dairy.  The Kingston’s raise their own calves and heifers and produce milk.  In addition to growing their own forages for the cows, the Kingston’s grow cash-crops to sell to market and grow forages to sell to neighboring farms, both of which add some diversity to the farm’s revenue streams.

Filling in the Puzzle

The Kingston conservation project adds significantly to the decades of work Genesee Valley Conservancy has been doing in the Town of Geneseo.  The farm is directly adjacent to two previously protected properties and adds over 3.7 miles of protection along roads south of the Village.

Connecting conservation lands together helps create a broad base of farmland that can sustain the agricultural economy of the town.  By protecting larger blocks of land, new development is prevented from sprawling out into the rural town and directed into the more urban Village which has a high efficiency of services and room to grow.

Full Circle

The legacy of the Kingston’s farmland protection project predates Dan and Bob’s pursuit of a conservation easement on their land.  Their father, Walter Kingston, was one of the founding board members of Genesee Valley Conservancy and was one of the forward-thinking community members that realized the value of lands in the Genesee Valley.  Walter was instrumental in conceptualizing and establishing the Conservancy to ensure the natural resources could be preserved and passed to future generations so the community would continue to benefit from the natural resources in the Genesee Valley.

Beyond just farmland protection, Walter was also an early advocate for Long Point Park, pursuing acquisition of that land by the Town of Geneseo to ensure the community would have access to Conesus Lake for enjoyment and use when no other parks excited on the lake.

Looking Forward

The Kingston’s have been working to improve the efficiency and quality of the dairy farm over the years.  New barns have been built to improve feeding efficiency, ventilation, grouping of cows, and manure collection.  A new manure lagoon provides the farm 10 months of storage, allowing the farm to maximize use of manure to fertilize fields at optimal times.

Community Impact

This project adds the 97th conservation easements accepted by the Conservancy and is the 28th conservation project in the Town of Geneseo.  The Conservancy’s second ever conservation project was in the town of Geneseo and we continue to expand on this initial project today!

How It Happened

In 2018, the Kingstons attended a farmland protection workshop hosted by the Livingston County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board and Genesee Valley Conservancy to learn about conservation easements and the New York State grant program that funds these efforts.

 The brothers decided to pursue the program and applied to the local Livingston County selection process. This process pre-ranks interested farms so that the lengthy and competitive grant applications submitted to NYS are the best the region has to offer.  During the 2018 local ranking, Kingston Farm was second highest ranked of all applicants (second just to the Mulligan Farm, a project the Conservancy is also completing this year).  Unsurprisingly, the project was subsequently awarded funding by NYS and their land protection project began.

This project was the result of a collaboration between Genesee Valley Conservancy, Livingston County Board of Supervisors, Livingston County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, Town of Geneseo and New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.  To-date, the collaborative effort between Genesee Valley Conservancy and local partners has resulted in over $23 million invested in protecting over 13,200 acres of some of the State’s most productive agricultural lands in the Genesee Valley.

In Summary

This project was supported by the Livingston County Agricultural & Farmland Protection Board and the Town of Geneseo.  Both municipalities recognize highly productive farmland is critical to the local economy and the economic future of the region.  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 23,530 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.