‘Inevitable.’
FOUR YEARS AFTER THE CENTURY-OLD GREENBACKER’S BROOKFIELD FARM SOLD OFF HUNDREDS OF COWS, IT’S NOW ON THE MARKET FOR NEARLY $5M
DURHAM — Four years ago, Greenbacker’s Brookfield Farm sold off its herd of hundreds of cows as milk prices dropped and dairy subsidies dwindled, and now, the 415-acre farm in Durham is going down the same road: it is up for sale.
“It was an inevitable decision once we made the decision to sell the cows, looking back on it,” Joe Greenbacker, the oldest of four siblings who own the farm, said. “To me — at least so far, the sale hasn’t happened yet — but to me, the sale of the cows was more emotional than, I think, this is going to be. It’s one thing to sell the land, but another thing to sell the animals that you’ve worked with day in and day out.”
The farm, owned by the Greenbackers since the early 1980s, was listed this week at nearly $5 million. The property includes seven houses and multiple barns, plus cattle and equestrian facilities. The farm, flanked by Route 68, is framed by rolling hills, mature woodlands, a pond and, in the evening, stellar sunsets.
“It’s a suburban farm, this is not Kansas, it runs along Route 68, so the location is legendary, actually,” said Ann Harrison, a real estate agent who has co-listed the property with Allison Gentile-pollack at William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in Guilford.
“There wasn’t much of the younger generation in place to take over the operation. Basically, we’re just getting older. It’s harder and harder to keep up with everything.” — Joe Greenbacker, the oldest of four siblings who own the farm
“If you bring up Brookfield Farm, people are like, ‘Oh, the cluster of yellow houses,’ ” Harrison said.
The farm is being marketed as a convenient commute to New Haven, Hartford or the shoreline, and two hours to Boston and New York. There also is rental income from agricultural, residential, equestrian and hunting leases.
‘Harder and harder’
The Greenbackers are high-profile among the state’s struggling farmers. In 2018, shortly after the sale of the farm’s herd, Joe Greenbacker appeared in a video promoting the Farm Aid fundraising concert at Xfinity Theater in Hartford. Greenbacker, who also attended the concert, recounted in the video that it was an emotional decision to sell the cows, according to a Farm Aid blog post.
“But in reality, if we had kept going we would have just continued to erode the value and equity in our business,” Greenbacker said, according to the post.
Since the sale of the herd, most of the farm has been leased to another vegetable grower. Joe Greenbacker and his brother, David, have planted about 35 acres of hay and some corn. The decision to sell comes as fertilizer and diesel fuel prices have soared — pushed up by inflation and the war in Ukraine — and a labor shortage.
But Joe Greenbacker said those were not factors in deciding to sell because the farm had already scaled back. The decision is more closely tied to a strong real estate market and frankly, he said, his age and that of his siblings. Greenbacker said he will be 73 in a couple of weeks.
“Even though my daughter and her husband have some animals here, there wasn’t much of the younger generation in place to take over the operation,” Greenbacker said. “Basically, we’re just getting older. It’s harder and harder to keep up with everything.”
A sale would open up hundreds of acres in central Connecticut, but there is a restriction on what can be done with them.
The owner previous to the Greenbackers had already sold the development rights to the state’s farmland preservation program. That means the land can only be used for agricultural purposes or open space.
“It doesn’t mean they have to farm it,” Greenbacker said. “These restrictions have been no problem for us for what we’ve done here over the years.”
Potential buyers just need to understand the parameters, Greenbacker said.
“There are many things that could be done with this property,” Greenbacker said. “We’re not telling any buyer what they have to do — or what they can, or cannot do.”
Roots in farming
The Greenbacker family has deep roots in Connecticut farming but are relative newcomers to Durham.
The family bought Brookfield Farm in 1983, shifting dairy operations from land in Meriden and Wallingford near I-91, where Greenbackers had been farming since 1723, under a colonial land grant from the King of England.
Greenbacker said the farm is legally divided into two parcels and could be sold that way.
But the family prefers to sell it in one piece, honoring the memory of wealthy New Haven industrialist Frederick Brewster.
A century ago, Brewster, according to Greenbacker, assembled four farms into one, creating Brookfield Farm.
“We think that it has been one farm for so long, if it is possible to sell to one buyer, that’s what I would like to see,” Greenbacker said. “As far as what they do with the land, as long as it complies with regulations concerning development rights, that’s OK with me.”