A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6, 2002
Md. & Va. Milk Cooperative Honors Members, Plans Future
(Continued from Page A 33)
• Charles and Gladys Smith,
Myersville, Md.
Reid Smith of Lexington,
North Carolina, was named Out
standing Young Cooperator for
2002.
Don’t Let Another Tax Year Pass Without Conserving Your Land
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
April 15 doesn’t have to be
painful again next year. Instead,
it can be a day landowners cele
brate both tax savings and the
satisfaction of permanently con
serving important open spaces.
The nation’s 1,200-plus land
trusts nonprofit organizations
that are independent of govern
ment and work hand-in-hand
with landowners who choose to
conserve their lands offer a va
riety of ways that landowners can
permanently protect their open
space lands and perhaps shave
their tax bill:
• Donate it to a nonprofit land
trust.
• Donate a conservation ease
ment, which permanently limits
the type and scope of develop
ment.
Black To Entertain At Benefit
YORK (York Co.) The
Farm and Natural Lands Trust
of York County has announced
that Baxter Black, rancher, cow
boy poet, author, and National
Public Radio commentator, will
be the guest entertainer at a bene
fit dinner May 2 at the Valencia
Ballroom in downtown York.
Reservations for the dinner
should be made by April 17 by
calling the Farm and Natural
Lands Trust at (717) 843-4411.
Cost for this evening of family
entertainment is $29 per person
and includes a social hour and
dinner beginning at 6 p.m.
Baxter Black can shoe a horse,
string a bob wire fence, and bang
out a Bob Wills classic on his flat
top guitar. But since 1982 he has
been rhyming his way into the
national spotlight and stands as
the best selling cowboy poet in
Animal ID Highlight Of Show
BOWLING GREEN, Ky.
The National Institute for Ani
mal Agriculture (NIAA) has an
nounced ID/Info Expo 2002, a
conference and trade show devot
ed to the subject of animal identi
fication and information systems.
The event will take place in
Chicago, 111., July 29-31 and Aug.
1, and will feature the National
Food Animal Identification Sym
posium, the first-ever National
Equine Identification Symposium
and a trade show featuring man
ufacturers and service providers
in the animal identification and
information systems business.
NIAA, formerly known as the
Livestock Conservation Institute,
has previously facilitated three
livestock, or food animal, identi
fication conferences in 1998,
1994, and 1988. This one figures
to be the largest.
The preliminary schedule of
events has the National Equine
Identification Symposium sched
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additional coverage of the Council's recent annual conference in
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(or specially markets
Smith graduated in ag busi
ness, economics, and animal sci
ence from North Carolina State.
He partners with his father in
managing a 160 Holstein milking
herd.
David and Amy Coltrane, also
of North Carolina, and Gordon
• Sell the land to a land trust
in a “bargain sale” for below fair
market price.
Under the Internal Revenue
Code, for most gifts of appreciat
ed land or conservation ease
ments, a taxpayer can deduct up
to 30 percent of his adjusted
gross income in the year of the
donation. If the value of the gift
exceeds that deduction, the tax
payer can carry forward the bal
ance for up to five additional
years.
For example, if “Mrs. Land
owner” has an adjusted gross in
come of $50,000 and makes a gift
of a conservation easement worth
$BO,OOO, her deduction in the first
year would be $15,000. The bal
ance can then be carried forward
for each of five years until she
has deducted the full $BO,OOO
value of her gift.
the world,
He’s written 12 books, record
ed more than a dozen audio and
videotapes, and achieved notorie
ty as a syndicated columnist and
radio commentator.
From the “Tonight Show” and
PBS to NPR and the NFR, Baxt
er’s verse has been seen and
heard by millions. Yet Black,
who still doesn’t own a television,
fax machine, or cell phone, hasn’t
changed a thing about his subject
matter or his delivery. He contin
ues to focus on the day-to-day
ups and downs of everyday peo
ple, especially those who live with
livestock and work the land.
Proceeds benefit the Farm and
Natural Lands Trust of York
County. For more information,
contact the Farm and Natural
Lands Trust at (717) 843-4411 or
by e-mail at www.farmtrust.org.
uled for July 29-30 and the Na
tional Food Animal Identifica
tion Symposium scheduled for
July 31-Aug. 1. The trade show
will span
both confer
ences.
Individu
als wanting
to make
sure they
are in
cluded on
the mailing
list are en
couraged to
go to
www.anim
alagricultu
re.org/id on
the Internet
and fill out
an online
information
request
card.
and Sheila Lee, South Carolina,
were runners-up for the young
cooperator award.
Contestants participated in in
terviews and roundtable discus
sions that tested their knowledge
on a wide variety of dairy topics.
Young cooperator winners rep
Because development pres
sures in most parts of the country
dramatically increased property
values during the past 20 years,
many people are forced to sell
lands that have been in the fami
ly for generations in order to pay
estate taxes.
Consider the “Triple Bar
Ranch,” a fictional working
ranch but a true-to-life financial
example. The family patriarch
bought the ranch in the 19605,
when land was far less expensive.
Today, it is worth $1.25 million.
Mrs. Landowner is a widow,
and the ranch comprises nearly
her whole estate. She and her
husband accumulated just
$250,000 in other assets.
Therefore, her total estate is
resent Maryland and Virginia at
various national conferences
throughout the year.
In a first-time award presenta
tion, three producer couples were
recognized for the high quality of
milk they shipped during 2001.
James and Sharon Nickle,
worth $1.5 million. In nearly
every state, the combined state
and federal estate taxes would be
about $200,000 more than the
surviving Landowner children
could afford to pay, even though
they want to see the ranch re
main as open space.
The solution may be the volun
tary donation of a conservation
easement, which legally limits the
amount and type of development
that can take place on land. An
easement can be tailored to a
landowner’s desires.
The easement may, for exam
ple, permit construction of just
two more large-lot homes but
protect the land from construc
tion of a subdivision.
As a result, Mrs. Landowner
Nottingham; Allen and Marlene
Witmer, Deer Lodge, Tennessee;
and Daniel and Florence Som
mers, Rustburg, Virginia, were
recognized for producing milk
with low somatic cell counts, low
standard plate counts, and prop
er freeze point averages.
may reduce the land’s market
value to $750,000, down from its
current $1.25 million value. Her
estate, including $250,000 in
other assets, would then be worth
$1 million, and no estate taxes
would be due.
The nation’s private, nonprofit
land trusts have been tremen
dously successful at land protec
tion. Grassroots land trusts had
permanently more than 6.2 mil
lion acres by the end of 2001. Of
that, approximately 2.6 million
acres had been protected by con
servation easements, according to
the Land Trust Alliance (LTA).
The amount of acreage protected
by conservation easements in
creased more than fivefold since
1990.