Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo County
Lease, Working arrangement with future partner
Aug 5, 2024
Acreage
- 78 Acres Available
- 25 Open Tillable Acres
Infrastructure and Equipment Available
Past/Current Land Usage
Vision for the Farm
With climate change and over-use of chemicals in farming, we would like to see the farm transition from poison, plug-in, fertilize, kill bugs and sometimes chemicals to harvest, to something more sustainable for our wildlife and human life. Our current farmer tells us it will be several years to reach organic, and he is not into it, so here we are.
We are in an ideal location for any agricultural business that appeals to the population who want to embrace a re-wilding society. We support organic farming even though we cannot have it on our farm - yet. There is community interest in back-to-nature and homesteading and we are open to integrating that cultural need on our property.
Past/Current Land Usage
Acreage description
This property is located on the west side of Kalamazoo, near the 131 and I-94 highway interchange.
We have woods and fields, with a house, a barn for tools and repairs, a horse barn, a fenced track system, automatic waterer and dry lot. There are thirty-eight acres of woods on the east side of the property and the tillable twenty-eight acres is on the west side of the property. Road frontage has the house and a horse barn, with three separate driveways for farming equipment, horse barn and house.
This is an ideal property for a business, since we are only a couple of miles from the main commerce area, and it feels like the country because the houses on the main road spreadout. The tillable acreage is behind the house and horse farm.
Description of the property’s current condition, current use(s), and past use(s)
We are building our horse barn one stage at a time, until the mortgage rates come down low enough for us to refinance and pull-out equity to complete it all at once.
We have horses and host regular Equine Assisted Learning programs that offer personal and spiritual growth with our co-facilitators, the horses. As we develop our program and embrace the local community of healers, we want participants to feel safe from chemical farming.
We are completing a Hip Camp site on the edge of the property between the horse fences and the tillable property, that we expect to be full all farming season. Yet another reason chemical farming is not attractive to us.
The current farmer alternates between beans and corn because of the crop insurance offered by the government. He is a better farmer than the one before him, who farmed before we owned the property, but we are leery of plug n play farming because of the chemical exposure to humans and animals. When approached about considering alternate crops or stopping chemicals, he is not interested.
Additional Information
There is a growing interest in intentional communities in the area, and we seem to have the property to consider setting one up.
If the property is being continuously farmed, we can keep our Ag-exempt status. The minute we are not farming, the township will revert the property to residential and ownership will become unaffordable to us.
We are open to discussion about finding a way to host a young farmer who is an industrious worker and motivated to develop their business on our property. Old farmers like to use old ways to farm, and we are interested in sustainable farming, which may not fit into the old paradigm.
Soil Type(s)
KaB, OsC, OsE
Transition Agreement
Lease, Working arrangement with future partner
The current lease ends when the current farmer has cleared his crop off the property. He pays us in December. He would like to continue to lease the property, so we will continue year-to-year with him if we do not get a better offer.
Until we are confident a new farmer is meeting our expectations and their expectations, we are offering a short-term lease. Once we see the arrangement is working, we will offer a 3–5-year lease.
We are of retirement age and expect to let this property go in the next ten years. If our chosen farmer is interested and capable of buying the whole property, it could be negotiated at that time.
We do not have a house to lease to a farmer at this time, but please talk to us about living on site to see whether we can negotiate something if you have no place to live nearby. It might not work, but you never know.
Sale Price or Estimated Market Value
United States
Price for Lease Per Acre
United States
Production Preferences
Preferred Farming Method
Organic Practices
