Mulligan Family Protects Acreage in Avon

Three new conservation easements held by Genesee Valley Conservancy expand upon the Mulligan family’s previous conservation work, protecting an additional 547 acres of highly productive farmland in Avon.

 In 2010, the Mulligan family protected 1,245 acres of their farm in Avon as one of the regions first State funded farmland protection projects.  The family has since acquired additional acreage to expand their business and have now added protections to these newly acquired acres to ensure these lands will also remain open and available for agricultural use for generations to come.

Early Advocates

The Mulligan Farm has the distinct honor of being the farm that brought the State’s farmland protection program to the attention of Genesee Valley Conservancy.  More than a decade ago, Phillip Mulligan heard about the State’s effort to protect farmland.  He learned about the funding being invested to cover the project costs of farmland protection and how the State was incentivizing landowners to protect their highly productive lands. 

The State’s goal to not lose its most productive and valuable soil resources that were, and are, the foundation of New York State’s agricultural economy matched with Phillip’s vision for his family’s farm remaining in-tact for his and future generations.

The Mulligans offered to forge the path as the first local project to determine how this program worked, the benefits for farmers, and what it could mean for protecting farmland in the Genesee Valley.

This initial project was successfully completed in 2010.  The result was the protection of 1,245 acres in Avon.

Fast Growth

Once the Conservancy realized the potential for this program and learned the process and requirements, a coalition with Livingston and Wyoming counties was created to educate, review, and rank farms interested in farmland protection.  This process allowed the region to put forth the most viable farmland protection projects to New York State.

Since the Mulligan’s first project, more than $48 million has been secured to protect some of the best ground in the Genesee Valley.  This funding will secure nearly 30,000 acres of the most viable agricultural grounds for continue agricultural use.

Productive Ground

This 2021 Mulligan project protected 547 acres of land with 73% USDA Prime soils and 7% NY State Important soils, some of the most productive soils in the State.

The quality of their soils was a key factor that made the Mulligan Farm the #1 ranked farm in Livingston County in 2018 when this project was approved for protection.

The Farm

The Mulligan Farm was started in 1920 by Edward & Nancy Mulligan.  The lands protected by this project include lands owned by Jeff Mulligan and wife Lesa Sobolewski, and Jeff’s brother Phillip Mulligan and wife Susan Morse.  These newest acres sandwich the original farm in the middle, directly expanding upon the lands protected in 2010 to both the west and east.

The farm milks around 1,350 cows, raises their own heifers, and produce an average of just under 29,000 pounds per cow (compared to the State average of 23,936 pounds).  The farm makes over 36 million pounds of milk per year (at 8.6 pounds per gallon, that’s 2.67 million gallons of milk!).

In addition to selling milk, the farm sells semen and embryos from their herd due to the high-quality genetics they have cultivated.  The farm also grows corn for silage and grain, alfalfa and grass hay for haylage and baled hay, and wheat for grain and straw.  Yields are consistently well above regional averages.

There are 18 permanent full-time non-family employees working on the farm, in addition to a couple of part-time permanent positions.  During the cropping season several additional full-time and part-time employees are added to keep up with the work.

The farm is in a constant state of change, working to improve conditions in the fields and in the barns to create high quality products, reduce the cost and material of their inputs, and create less waste.  Recently, the farm has converted to sand bedding and installed a sand separator and reclamation system to reduce the cost and materials of providing bedding for the cows. 

Room For Growth

While the Conservancy strives to protect highly productive soils and important open spaces throughout the region, the organization is not ‘anti-development.’  In fact, in 2019 the organization changed its Acquisition Policy to prohibit conservation projects located within villages that did not include public access.

The goal of this change was to ensure lands within villages, being areas of higher density, sidewalks, utilities and other public infrastructure, would remain available for future development.  By allowing villages room to add new residential, commercial, and industrial structures, the Conservancy hopes to prevent development from sprawling out into the rural towns.

The Mulligan Farm owns and works several fields within the boundaries of the Village of Avon.  While working through the details of this conservation project, the family, Conservancy, Town, and State all agreed that the lands the farm owns within the Village should not be included in this permanent conservation project.  Doing so could force future development to leapfrog out of the Village into the Town.

The exception to this policy, “unless it includes public access,” allows the Conservancy to work with villages on creating public parks and recreational areas that would be suitable additions to an urban environment, like the Conservancy has done with the Island Preserve in the Village of Geneseo.

While the lands within the Village were not included within this project, the lands protected outside of the Village have secured over 1.1 miles along boundary of the Village to help keep development from sprawling out into the town.

Still on the Cutting Edge

The Mulligan Family continues to be on the leading edge of agriculture in Livingston County.  Forrest Watson, nephew to Jeff and Lesa, is the field manager for the farm and is constantly working to improve soil health, reduce inputs, and maximize outputs of the crop fields.

By testing new techniques on small fields, Forrest has learned ways to increase crop yields, reduce inputs, and save time.  He is currently working with the Great Lakes Restoration initiative to test and measure new techniques and sharing the results and experiences through field-days open to farmers in the region.

Practices like using cover crops cost a farm money up front, but the roots from cover crops help break up the soil and avoid the need to till before the next planting.  The cover crops prevent rain from causing erosion and sediment runoff from the farm.

Forrest has found that the added costs of planting cover crops and doing additional  environmentally friendly practices returned to the farm 129% as the farmed increased their net income by $75.  A no brainer for a farm that is trying to make money, save time, and be good stewards of the land for future generations.

Community Impact

This project adds the 98th, 99th, and 100th conservation easements accepted by the Conservancy and is the 23rd, 24th, and 25th conservation easements completed in the Town of Avon, where the Genesee Valley Conservancy completed its first every conservation project back in 1991!

Over two miles of road frontage were protected with this project, including lands along a section of Routes 5 and 20 and along West Henrietta Road, each identified as a desired ‘greenbelt’ by the Town’s 2016 Comprehensive Plan.  The Comprehensive Plan identified three sections of roads with exceptional rural and agricultural views that the Town wished to see preserved.  The Conservancy has completed multiple projects along these corridors, helping to realize the Town’s vision for its future.

How It Happened

In 2018, the Mulligans 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 family 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, Mulligan Farm was the highest ranked of all applicants.  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 Avon 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 $24 million invested in protecting over 13,760 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 Avon.  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 24,078 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, are encouraged to contact Genesee Valley Conservancy for more information.