**Exhibit 31(a)**

** **

**Certification of Quarterly Report ByPrincipal Executive Officer Pursuant to****Exchange Act Rules 13a-14 and 15d-14**

** **

I, Gary M. Cusumano, Presidentand Chief Executive Officer of Newhall Management Corporation (PrincipalExecutive Officer), certify that:

 

1. I have reviewed thisquarterly report on Form 10-Q of The Newhall Land and Farming Company;

 

2. Based on my knowledge, thisquarterly report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact oromit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in lightof the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading withrespect to the period covered by this quarterly report;

 

3. Based on my knowledge, thefinancial statements, and other financial information included in thisquarterly report, fairly present in all material respects the financialcondition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, andfor, the periods presented in this quarterly report;

 

4. The registrant’s othercertifying officers and I are responsible for establishing and maintainingdisclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-14 and15d-14) for the registrant and we have:

 

a) designed such disclosurecontrols and procedures to ensure that material information relating to theregistrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us byothers within those entities, particularly during the period in which thisquarterly report is being prepared;

 

b) evaluated the effectivenessof the registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures as of a date within 90days prior to the filing date of this quarterly report (the “Evaluation Date”);and

 

c) presented in this quarterlyreport our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls andprocedures based on our evaluation as of the Evaluation Date;

 

5. The registrant’s othercertifying officers and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation,to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of registrant’s board ofdirectors (or persons performing the equivalent function):

 

a) all significant deficienciesin the design or operation of internal controls which could adversely affectthe registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financialdata and have identified for the registrant’s auditors any material weaknessesin internal controls; and

 

b) any fraud, whether or notmaterial, that involves management or other employees who have a significantrole in the registrant’s internal controls; and

 

6. The registrant’s othercertifying officers and I have indicated in this quarterly report whether ornot there were significant changes in internal controls or in other factorsthat could significantly affect internal controls subsequent to the date of ourmost recent evaluation, including any corrective actions with regard tosignificant deficiencies and material weaknesses.

 
| Date: August  4, 2003 | THE NEWHALL  LAND AND FARMING COMPANY                                                       |
|-----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                  | (a California Limited Partnership)                                                          |
|                  | Registrant                                                                                  |   |
|                  |                                                                                        |   |
|                  | By:  Newhall  Management Limited Partnership,                                     |   |
|                  |                                                                                        | Managing  General Partner |   |
|                  |                                                                                        |   |
|                  | By:  Newhall  Management Corporation,                                             |   |
|                  |                                                                                        | Managing  General Partner |   |
|                  |                                                                                        |   |
|                  | /s/ Gary M. Cusumano                                                                        |   |
|                  | Gary M.  Cusumano, President and Chief Executive Officer of Newhall Management  Corporation |   |
|                  | (Principal  Executive Officer)                                                              |   |
|                       |                                                                                             |  |  |  |  |

 

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