Do we have to get a cow?

"Because we will."

Minnesota is cracking down on the nouveau breed of "microfarmers":

Mecredy is caught up in a slow-motion state crackdown on people with small acreages who claim to be farming but aren't -- or who do so little of it that the tax break plainly wasn't meant for them. And that could be a lot of folks. The biggest Minnesota news to emerge from the most recent U.S. Census of agriculture was a sudden explosion in the number of microfarms -- usually 50 or fewer acres. With what one expert calls "non-farm farms" proliferating, county tax assessors have been striking back.

"There has been an abuse of the 'ag' class for a long period of time," said Scott County Auditor Cindy Geis.

In just five years, the numbers of Minnesota microfarms have spiked by 4,500 at a time when the number of farms in most size categories is shrinking.

The surge was especially notable in fast-growing metro-fringe counties such as Sherburne and Chisago, which saw substantial portions of land converted into microfarms.

"In this county and in others across the metro, we're seeing some pretty substantial executive homes worth half a million dollars to well over a million that are sitting on 10 acres, with two of them tilled, and a horse in a pen -- and they're going, 'Now we're a farmer,'" Geis said.

"When they get the letter, they call us and say, 'Do we have to get a cow? Because we will.' It's amazing."

Technically, the new clampdown has arisen because some counties haven't been strictly enforcing the state law that says you need to have 10 contiguous acres farmed to get the tax break -- and must deduct the farmstead from the total.

While few disagree that some abuse is taking place, many microfarmers are outraged on two grounds:

• In an era of farmers markets and chef-driven restaurants priding themselves on small, local and often organic providers, they say, a person can do meaningful farming on small plots of land.

For instance, a handful of acres supports entire immigrant families and others with supplemental income.

• Even where the "ag" claim is dicier, they say, it's unfair for the government to pull a sudden switcheroo.

"When we moved out here, our Realtor told us we needed to have 10 acres to be 'ag,'" said Russ Balamut of Zimmerman, who admits his farming claim isn't as strong as some. "All of a sudden it's 'Poof!' They're pulling the rug out. They are devaluing my property."
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The problem in designing a law, she's quick to agree, is that it's not always clear what is ag and what isn't. Few hobby farmers make a living from it, but few "real" farmers rely on it entirely, either.

Of the state's nearly 81,000 properties whose owners consider them farms, the most recent federal farm census found that owners of 51,000 say that farming is their primary occupation and that just 11,000 earn all their income from farming.

For more than half -- 42,342 -- the farm accounts for less than a quarter of their income.