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Ielmorini-Moody Dairy, Valley Ford About 20 inches of rain have fallen on the town of Valley Ford this winter, and even on a warm and sunny winter morning, it's muddy at the Ielmorini-Moody Dairy. The earth around the milking barn and in the surrounding fields is saturated. Rose Ielmorini apologizes to a visitor, but her husband Leo is philosophical. "You need dirt and water for the world to survive," he says. The dairy, with 326 acres in Marin County and 1237 acres in Sonoma, is located on the banks of Americano Creek which flows into Estero Americano. In January, the Marin portion of the operation became the 46th ranch to be permanently protected from non-agricultural development by a Marin Agricultural Land Trust conservation easement. Financed by a grant of $395,000 from the California Coastal Conservancy and $127,600 from contributions to MALT's capital campaign, the easement brings to 30,655 the total number of Marin farmland acres now preserved. The property is jointly owned by the Ielmorinis, their nephew Steve Moody, and his wife Jeannie. Jeannie grew up on a small farm in Cotati, and ever since Steve was a little boy from Rio Vista visiting his Aunt Rose and Uncle Leo during summer vacations, he's wanted to be a rancher. "They put me to work," he remembers now, "but I also got the run of the ranch."
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