{"id":6922,"date":"2025-07-21T14:20:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T18:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/?p=6922"},"modified":"2025-07-21T14:20:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T18:20:05","slug":"a-lifetime-of-loving-farms-conserving-them-for-the-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/a-lifetime-of-loving-farms-conserving-them-for-the-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lifetime of Loving Farms, Conserving them for the Next Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dick and Peggy Ann Kuss didn’t grow up on farms — but that didn’t stop them from becoming farmers.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In their late 30s, the couple shifted careers from running a school bus business to pursuing Dick\u2019s lifelong dream of working the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“From a young age, I knew that I wanted to farm,” Dick said. The Kusses balanced their business with farming\u2014growing hay during the summer and gradually acquiring farmland across Woodbury and Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Peggy passed away in 2021 and Dick continues to honor her love of the farm by continuing their high-end hay operation and is committed to preserving the land they built together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past several years, Dick has already protected four parcels of farmland, with more in the pipeline. For the most recent two parcels, we worked alongside the State of Connecticut to secure matching funds from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and now share stewardship of those permanently protected lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDick is a committed and conservation-minded farmer who works tirelessly to maintain his farm,\u201d said our Executive Director, Elisabeth Moore. \u201cThanks to his foresight, these lands will stay in agriculture and could one day support the next generation of farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
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Kuss Farm’s hay feeds livestock throughout Connecticut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We believe Connecticut has a unique opportunity to preserve farmland that not only honors a community\u2019s agricultural legacy but also creates space for new and innovative farmers to grow. While land access remains one of the biggest challenges for beginning farmers, landowners like Dick\u2014and supporters like you\u2014are helping change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are a lot of young people with an interest in farming,\u201d Dick said. \u201cBut they can\u2019t farm because there\u2019s no land available for them. Maybe young people can use this farm in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With federal funding currently in flux, we are assessing local funding and state funding options, including community donations and donated conservation easements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next several years we will be assisting local farmers throughout the state to conserve additional lands, identify opportunities for innovation and farm viability, and promote our state\u2019s agricultural economy. It\u2019s community support that makes this possible and will keep Connecticut\u2019s agricultural future growing strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dick and Peggy Ann Kuss didn’t grow up on farms — but that didn’t stop them from becoming farmers. In their late 30s, the couple shifted careers from running a school bus business to pursuing Dick\u2019s lifelong dream of working the land. “From a young age, I knew that I wanted to farm,” Dick said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6922"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6929,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6922\/revisions\/6929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}