Largest Farm in Ohio Preserved in Greene County!

Gene Kavanagh is a man who had always thought about the future. Raised on a Greene County farm during the depression, his parents encourages their six children to leave the farm to get an education. That they did, one becoming a doctor, one an engineer, two nurses, and two educators. One of the educators in the family, Gene retired as the head of a comprehensive vocational program that he had developed, including the building of its four campuses. But Gene had never lost track of what the family was doing on their Painterville farm or of the future of farming in general, saying “Once you’re in farming, you never get out of it.”

He and his wife set about purchasing farmland early in their lives. They bought three Greene County farms, followed by others in Fayette County, Clark and Ross. Mr. Kavanagh said, “Paper doesn’t give me too much pleasure, land does, fifty years from now, the way land prices are going, ordinary people won’t be able to buy.” Thus, Mr. Kavanagh welcomed the opportunity the Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program and the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program brings to present and future owners of farmland. He completed an agricultural easement on his 994-acre farm in Ross Township, in Greene County, using both programs. The easement guarantees that his land will be available for agriculture into perpetuity, no matter how much commercial land prices rise.