Agriculture is a major use of land in the Conesus Lake Watershed. Since approximately 42 percent of the direct drainage in the watershed is in active agricultural use, agriculture is important to the water quality of Conesus Lake. Farming is important to the natural beauty and rural character of the watershed that many residents and visitors to the watershed desire, prefer and value. Agriculture is important as an economic activity and provides farm business owners with opportunities to achieve personal and family goals.

Water Quality: Like other human activity in the Conesus Lake Watershed, agriculture has the potential to adversely affect water quality in the lake. It is an important part of the integrated strategy to preserve, restore and enhance the health of Conesus Lake. For the farm business owner, this means identifying environmental concerns and determining changes needed for improvement. Implementing changes in the farm business that address concerns needs to be accomplished within the limits of business and family goals. Farm business operators in the watershed, through their decisions and actions are important to improving water quality.

Farm business owners in the watershed have New York State’s voluntary Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM) program to assist in identifying problems and implementing solutions. For some livestock operations, action at the farm level will result from New York State’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations regulatory program. Each has the effect of addressing agriculture’s adverse impacts on the environment.

Natural Beauty and Rural Character of the Watershed: Agriculture is a prominent part of the landscape in the Conesus Lake watershed. Farming plays a major role in that natural beauty and rural character that residents and visitors appreciate. Farming must be a viable means for individuals to accomplish personal and family goals to preserve and/or enhance the watershed’s natural beauty and rural character.

Economic Activity: Farm business owners manage land resources in the watershed to produce agricultural commodities as the means to accomplishing personal and family goals. Individuals operating farm businesses in the watershed produce a variety of products. Most land is dedicated to field crop production, while dairy is the predominant livestock operation. Crops produced in the watershed include field corn, hay/forage crops, soybeans, wheat, oats, dry beans, sweet corn for processing and many market vegetables.

Economic contributors: Farm businesses pay school, county and town property taxes. They hire employees and pay all the associated benefits that go with employment. They pay income and sales taxes. Most farmers purchase inputs and services locally so they are major contributors to local public funding and the economy.

Practices being implemented: It is to the farmer’s benefit to practice good stewardship of land and animals. Only by such practices can they maintain the productivity and value of their land, buildings and animals.

Farmers also want to do what is best for the quality of Conesus Lake. Some of the practices currently being installed or planned include: strip cropping, grass waterways/buffer zones, tile drainage, water/sediment control basins, soil testing, fertilizer use according to soil test, elimination of manure spreading near sensitive areas, manure storage for reduction or elimination of winter spreading, elimination of outdoor barnyards, management of roof drainage and farmstead runoff water, managed grazing systems and use of cover crops.

These practices are being implemented as farmers have the ability to pay and/or obtain cost sharing to install them. Look for long-term benefits; don’t expect significant changes on a one-year basis.

By John Hanchar and Nathan Herendeen, Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators, NorthWest New York Team.