SHERBURNE – After 45 years in the business, dairy farmers Robert and Susan Patt have decided that all signs are pointing toward a change.

The couple is hoping to sell the farm they’ve owned on the edge of the Village of Sherburne since 1989, citing age, the economy, and recent forces of nature as the deciding factors.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time now,” said Robert. “It’s time.”

The Patts are planning to relocate near their son’s dairy farm in Cayuga County, possibly drawing out the final point on an agricultural road map that’s led them from Robert’s birthplace in central Massachusetts, to Montgomery County (outside Albany) in 1972, then to Sherburne. They won’t say for sure what their retirement will entail, acknowledging it probably won’t be too far from the life they already know so well.

“We’ll still have a hand in it,” Robert said. “We’ll wait and see I guess. I’m looking forward to not having all your time spoken for.”