Greener pastures: Why farmers are moving to Millard County.

Several farmers who used to till land, raise crops and run cattle in Salt Lake and Utah counties now do those things about 100 miles to the south.

Urban sprawl and commercial development during the past 30 years in the state's two most populated counties and neighboring counties forced full-time farmers to rethink their operations. Some profited by selling land in northern Utah to developers. And with those profits, they purchased less expensive land farther south in spacious, sparsely populated Millard County.

"It's really the last frontier for farming in Utah," says Alan Williams.

MOVING SOUTHWARD

The Williams family, farmers who raise corn and wheat and have a cow-calf operation, sold eight acres of their property near Spanish Fork--a Costco now stands on the land. Alan and his brother, Jared, now farm about 1,200 acres in west Millard County. They were able to purchase 440 acres about nine years ago, after looking at various other possibilities for their farm.

"After we sold the land near Spanish Fork, we looked at other areas like Brigham City, Tremonton and Richfield. Up in Brigham City and Tremonton, we could see that that would probably become like Spanish Fork is now in the next decade or two. There wasn't enough land available in the Richfield area," Williams says. ".. .We still own 200 acres in Spanish Fork. We leased ground in Spanish Fork for a while, but ground became less and less available with all the development.. .This has been a great move for us. There also is a hometown feel down here with hometown values."

Frank Vincent has farmed in Millard County for the last 20 years, after he sold land in Midway and Wallsburg.

"The land was so valuable up there that we were able to get more bang for the buck buying land down here," Vincent says. He purchased 5,000 acres in Millard County and runs cattle on land in Juab and Tooele counties. The Sevier River runs through the 1,000-acre Vincent Family Ranch in Leamington.

"We take cattle from here in the spring and we herd them north and they graze them on land in Juab and Tooele counties. Up in Tooele we graze above Vernon Reservoir," Vincent says. The Vincent family runs a herd of 1,000 cows.

"We have a lot more space down here than we had up there. There was a lot of water up there and we had productive acres," Vincent says. "Moving down here turned out to be an excellent move financially. It wasn't an easy move for my wife. We had to migrate from civilization."

Ranching is a way...