Relocating to PA from VT.

[llw5090]

Land is relatively cheap around Perry and Juniata counties... they are "down out' of the mountains for the most part, and enjoy more southern slope/ southern exposure... taxes there are pretty cheap too compared to other counties. Southern Northumberland county bordering Schuykill county and the northern Dauphin county area around has a lot of really nice farmland, remote from industries and RE taxes are less.

As far as "climate change deniers" I think most people here aren't adamant about their belief either way in this regard. YOu'll hear the usual "Al Gore jokes, and people saying they're glad to be rid of winter... but you will not find many liberals or "green", forward thinking people... Most agriculture here is hog or poultry operations, and the dairy industry is based strongly around Hershey/York/ Harrisburg. Home - Buy Fresh Buy Local Here you'll find farmers coming together to change up their methods for the better...

Be aware of having your water tested, and anywhere to the north of I-80, they are fracking the hell out of it for years to come. 1500 wells and 5000 more planned. New York times did an investigation, went around testing wells at many sites. Not to frighten you, but be aware of this issue....

Toxic Contamination From Natural Gas Wells - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

Winters in PA aren't nearly as brutal as VT. State college area is "chillier" mountainous, and up toward Erie (on the lake) you get the lake effect heavy snow... But to the east, say, the Susquehanna River/Juniata River watershed area on down you're in a nice 4 season climate, We get 3 months of each... with some southern exposure sheltered from wind, you can even grow a pecan tree successfully. Things do seem to be getting shifty in the last 8 or 10 years..."unseasonal" weather is now frequent. The coldest winter on record about 5 years ago.. extended heat wave brought us weeks in the 90s in April last year! Intense humidity and heat the hottest summer last summer and a long dry spell to where we had a 10" deficit in rainfall...
Now this spring we are having near-daily rain for over a month, very heavy at times, small stream and minor flooding several times now... the ground is saturated, the farmers can't get in to plant...
So who can say anymore!

Good luck to you!!

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by llw5090

L
Be aware of having your water tested, and anywhere to the north of I-80, they are fracking the hell out of it for years to come. 1500 wells and 5000 more planned. New York times did an investigation, went around testing wells at many sites. Not to frighten you, but be aware of this issue....

Also south of I-80, west of I-99/US 220.

Some areas of Marcellus Formation are present to the south and east of these lines, so far they seem not to attract interest from drillers, possibly because they have glutted the market already, possibly due to more folded rocks and lower amounts of overburden making fracking less feasible.

[pman]

Originally Posted by Pammyjeanb

Hello from Vermont!

My husband is nearing retirement and we're looking to relocate our dairy farm to a eastern state that offers tax breaks for retirees. Although I love my Green Mountain State, it gets you coming and going with taxes and we'll be in the poor house if we stay here in our retirement years.

So, we're looking for a rural setting, good agricultural land and reasonable property taxes. I'm native to "one-horse towns" and prefer them. I always said I wanted to live near the Amish!

It'd be great to live in a milder climate than Vermont and although I'm trying to familiarize myself with the climate differences between the southern and northern areas...I could use a little help with that as well.

A few have said to look around Gettysburg and to stay away from Lancaster, but I have seen some prices in the Gettysburg area that have been too far out of my price range. I could afford the land, but we'd all be living in a tent. lol

I'm probably looking at a price range of no more than $150,000 for enough land to maintain a small dairy farm...more than 20 acres - nothing more than 30-40 acres.

I look forward to any responses/suggestions!

Pam

I don't know if you're still reading this but I read this article about matching farms to people and thought of you
Pennsylvania lease program matches aspiring farmers to available land | Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/19/2011

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by wanneroo

... at least in my experience the people around where I live are very nosy and want to know your business. The vocal gossiping ladies that work at the post office can spread a rumor down main street in 10 minutes flat. Of all the states I have lived in, this is the one more than any other where random people will come up and start talking/questioning you.

I've lived in the midwest, a small town, and the pacific northwest, and you can say what you say above about almost any small town. To some people this is what neighborly socializing is all about, to some others it's people being nosey, depends on your perspective. One thing is for certain, though, that behavior is not going to change, even with social networking and instant messaging and all that. People have been doing that for generations.

To the original poster, some others mentioned it already, the county agriculture extension agents (one office per county), and lesser so the annual farm show in January in Harrisburg, are good starting points.

The ag extension agents, among other things are strong advocates for and (just like the high tech industry has so-called technology evangelists) evangelists for just about anything related to agriculture. With the added bonus they are very locally (county-wise) focused. This is one of many hats they wear.

On a related topic, it'll be shameful if the current governor's budget cuts reduces or diminishes what these guys do for agriculture in this state.

[blauskies]

I would look in Snyder County, PA, Western Snyder County is farmland heaven, just follow 522 from Selinsgrove up to McClure. Northumberland County is not really noted for Dairy, only place I knew of was Leon Epler Farms which is out of business, they use to sell milk in a plastic bag.