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New Entry Farmland Matching Service

The Service for Landseekers

The farmland location and matching service through the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry) assists qualified beginning farmers and experienced growers to locate suitable land for agricultural production. New Entry assists growers to get started or to expand the acreage of their agricultural business on available farmland in Massachusetts and surrounding Northeast states.

New Entry maintains a database of available farmland, and currently uses it to serve as a liaison between land owners and land seekers in the agricultural sector. Our areas of focus in farmland identification have been the Fitchburg, Orange, and Dracut areas, including a few towns on the North Shore. We are currently expanding our database to include all of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire through our partnership with a local non-profit's buyers agent.

New Entry can provide farmers with up to 2 hours per week of technical assistance in finding land to rent or to purchase. We are able to guide you through considerations you may encounter in a lease agreement and can help to connect you to low interest rate federal loan programs and federal or state cost share-incentive or conservation programs to help you get started developing a piece of farmland. Please read below to learn more about the Farmland Linking Service steps.

The Service for Landowners

The farmland location and matching service through the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry) helps landowners find farmers who are looking for land. New Entry assists growers to get started or to expand the acreage of their agricultural business on available farmland in Massachusetts and surrounding Northeast states, and helps landowners keep their farmland in production.

New Entry maintains a database of available farmland, and currently uses it to serve as a liaison between land owners and farmers in the agricultural sector. Our areas of focus in farmland identification have been the Fitchburg, Orange, and Dracut areas, including a few towns on the North Shore. We are currently expanding our database to include all of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire through our partnership with a local non-profit's buyers agent and will work with landowners throughout the state to find good land-farmer matches for their land.

New Entry can provide landowners with up to 2 hours per week of technical assistance in finding land to rent or to purchase. We are able to guide you through considerations you may encounter in a lease agreement and can help to evaluate the agricultural suitability of your land. We can also help connect you federal or state cost share-incentive or conservation programs to help you get your farmland back in use.. Please read below to learn more about the Farmland Linking Service steps.

How to Use the New Entry Farmland Matching Service

1. Submit the appropriate New Entry Farmland Matching Service application (for landowners or for landseekers) form to our office via email, snail mail, or fax.
2. New Entry learns about you and your search criteria through the application you submit.
3. New Entry applies your criteria to land/farmers already identified in the farmland database and either:
   • Informs you directly of the matched land/farmer contacts, or
   • Acts as the liaison between you and the landowners/farmers.
4. If land or farmers that match your criteria do not exist in the database, we will provide you with up to 2 hours per week for 12 weeks in looking for suitable land/farmers. If nothing comes of the work performed in the specified timeline, we will provide you with a resource list for you to continue the search where we left off.
5. 5. If time permits, New Entry can assist you in setting up meetings with landowners/farmers and provide suggestions and templates for negotiating terms and conditions of your land contract.
6. 6. New Entry will provide information about and help to connect you with low interest rate federal loan programs and federal or state cost-share incentive programs to help you develop your farmland and infrastructure needs.

Please do not hesitate to contact McKenzie Boekholder with any inquiries. She can be reached at (978) 654-6745 or by email at: mboekholder@comteam.org during regular business hours (M-F 9am – 5pm). If she is unavailable, please feel free to leave a message and she will return your call as soon as possible.