Bill Jackson, owner of Jackson's Orchard in Bowling Green, was the keynote speaker. The presentation of awards included essay and poster winners for 2002. The poster winner was Daniel Buckles and the essay winner was Mary Powell.
The master conservationist award was given to Dennis Tucker of Short Creek. The award is presented to cooperators who have completed 90 percent of their resource conservation plan. Components of eligibility include managing their land according to land class and soil capabilities, crop rotations, fertility management and a balanced livestock program.
Tucker row crops 130 acres annually and has the remaining marginal land enrolled in the CRP program. He leases hundreds of acres in both Grayson and Breckinridge counties. He installed the first, and so far only, cattle panel erosion control structures in Grayson County.
Billie Decker was awarded the title of cooperator of the year for 2002. Decker's farm is on Bear Creek, where he raises crops on about 60 acres of bottomland and has a beef cattle operation. He has incorporated minimum tillage and no-till best management practices into his cropping systems and forage-based management systems.
Russell Langdon was awarded the 2002 total conservation award in recognition of his application of conservation technology to all phases of his agriculture business.
Langdon uses minimum till technology to produce his corn, soybeans and milo. He uses turnips, rye, Sudan grass and milo stubble to develop a grazing program for his dairy cows, providing a harvesting forage every day possible to reduce feed costs for milk production.
A recently completed animal waste system stores the operation's manure under roof and uses a settling basin with a grain filter strip outlet to clean and return run-off water to the Rough River water shed.
He recently completed a heifer development barn.
Post a Comment
