Purchasing home on land conservation

[Stephanie Hale]

We have friends who are farmers. They own some property that they farm that is under land conservation. Recently, the tenants that lived in the farmhouse on the property moved out. The farmers do not want to deal with the hassle of renting out the property and maintenance (they are too busy farming). Is there a way for them to sell us just the house (and yard around the house)? The house sits close enough to to a road that it wouldn’t change the layout of the rest of the farmland if it was subdivided out and they would continue to farm it as they do now. Anyone have any experience with this?