Butler Family Protects Farmland in Perry and Leicester

The Butler family, brothers Scott, Jason, and Eric, along with Eric’s wife Michelle, have completed a farmland protection project with Genesee Valley Conservancy resulting in the protection of 1,003 acres of productive farmland in the towns of Perry and Leicester.

The Butler brothers owned and operated Sunny Knoll Farms, a dairy farm started in 1918 by their great-grandfather.  At their peak, Sunny Knoll Farms worked over 2,000 acres of land – owned and rented – to support their dairy herd.  Most of the crops grown by Sunny Knoll Farms were used directly to feed their herd throughout the year.  The farm also grew some cash-crops to sell to market.

Protecting their farmland was an important part of the family’s decision to transition their business to another local farmer as part of their retirement plans.  The Butlers had been working towards retirement the past several years.  Without a next generation ready to take over and continue operating the farm, the family was looking to sell the business to a local family to keep the land in agricultural use.  Protecting the farmland before any land transfer was an important step the family took to ensure the land remained available for agriculture so a new family could benefit from the productive soils as part of a farming operation.

The farm milked Holsteins and was a partner farm in Upstate Niagara Cooperative, a farmer-owned cooperative that collects, processes, and manufactures milk-based products before distributing to grocery stores.  The cooperative produces a variety of milks, yogurts, cottage cheeses, ice creams, buttermilk, and much more.  You can find the Upstate Farms logo on many of the products the cooperative produces.

The farmers that make up this cooperative are primarily located in western and central New York State with a smaller concentration in the north country.  The cooperative processes and bottles or uses milk from its farms within 36 hours of the milk leaving the farm.  In fact, the products from the cooperative hit store shelves within 48 to 72 hours of the milk being picked up from the farm.

There is a good chance that when you are consuming an Upstate Farms product that the milk component originated just a few days before on a farm like Sunny Knoll Farms!

Like many farms, Sunny Knoll Farms owned and rented lands across multiple towns as part of their business.  The farmland included in this protection project was specifically chosen by the brothers due to the land’s productive importance to their operation and given the geography of how these fields fit with several other completed and pending farmland protection projects involving Genesee Valley Conservancy.

The Sunny Knoll Farms land included in this project connects to 3,000 acres of completed or pending projects by neighboring farmers.  Combined with the lands protected by the Butlers, this block of agricultural lands is over 4,000 acres in size.  It is this concentration of protected farmland that the brothers felt was important to support continued agricultural uses for generations to come.

In most types of conservation, larger blocks of protected lands are preferred to the same acreage scattered across a larger geography.  This is true for farmland protection.  A larger block of farmland protected provides a base to support a community of farmers in one area.  A concentration of farmland also provides the underlying land-base to support the service businesses such as repair shops, seed distributors, and veterinary clinics, which farms rely upon.  A network of farmers is also important in moments of crisis.  Whether it is a broken tractor during the harvest window or an employee sickness that puts a farm shorthanded, if there are close neighboring farms, they can support each other, trade employees and share equipment to keep the farm operating.  This is not possible if a farm becomes isolated and is the last remaining farm in town.

On the farm, the Butler brothers kept up with technological innovations to improve the operations, efficiency, and products during their tenure.  They added an anaerobic digestion to turn waste into usable energy and added robots to perform milking to increase the efficiency and comfort for their herd.  Robotic milking allows cows to choose when to be milked, rather than being grouped into cohorts to be milked based on human scheduling.

The farm received many accolades over the years, including being named Conservation Farm of the Year by Wyoming County Soil and Water District, the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Agribusiness, a Dairy of Distinction, and they received numerous Super Milk awards for their high quality milk produced.

Sunny Knoll Farms not only sustained the three brother’s families, but supported 25 other families too with full-time jobs, along with numerous specialty consultants that assist with the field and herd management of the farm.  Many of these jobs will transfer to the new farmers to continue supporting the farming and herd management needs on this ground.

The farmland protected by this project includes over 72% USDA Prime soils, which helped the farm consistently produce higher than average yields and was one of the stand out features making this an important farmland protection project for Genesee Valley Conservancy. 

Over 7 miles of scenic road frontage are protected as part of this project, which will remain as intact vistas of the rural, agricultural landscape, that defines Perry’s and Leicester’s character and that of the broader Wyoming and Livingston counties.

This conservation project involved accepting the 17th conservation easements in the town of Perry by the Conservancy and the 19th in the Town of Leicester. 

This project was the result of a collaboration between Genesee Valley Conservancy, Wyoming County Board of Supervisors, Livingston County Board of Supervisors, Wyoming County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, Livingston County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, Town of Perry, Town of Leicester and New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. 

To-date, the farmland protection program of Genesee Valley Conservancy has resulted in over $45 million being invested in protecting 24,262 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 35,062 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 35,062 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