2002 Winners

Top Stewards Share Legacy of Commitment

Everyday, cattle producers care for the land, work with nature and their neighbors, striving to leave things better than they found them. That's environmental stewardship.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association believes such stewardship is worth noting, both for the public and to encourage others in the industry. During it’s annual convention in Nashville, NCBA honored the Kelly and Buckboard Ranches of Sutherland, Nebraska, with its 12th National Environmental Stewardship award. The top honor went to one of seven outstanding caretakers of the land – selected by an independent expert panel – as regional winners. The program is sponsored by Dow AgroSciences.

Here are this year's national and regional winners.

Kelly and Buckboard Ranches – Sutherland, Nebraska
Armstrong Farms – Saxonburg, Pennsylvania
Wakefield Farms – Hartwell, Georgia
Brad Z Ranch – Guthrie Center, Iowa
Goodson Ranch – Blackwell, Oklahoma
Sieben Live Stock Co. – Cascade, Montana
Y Bar D Ranch – Perkinsville, Arizona

Kelly and Buckboard Ranches – Sutherland, Nebraska

Michael and Cynthia Kelly are Region VII winners because of their stewardship of the fragile Nebraska Sandhill grasslands.

In their cow-calf and stocker operation, the Kellys work with a variety of conservation agencies to improve the land while making a living.

All the Kellys’ livestock are on a planned rotational grazing system that has resulted in a conservative 10 to 15 percent improvement in carrying capacity and increased wildlife numbers. They built 7 miles of cross fence, laid 7,800 feet of waterline, added 19 water tanks and planted 11,000 trees.

In order to protect the Birdwood Creek, which meanders for 5 miles through their ranch, the Kellys developed a conservation easement with the Nature Conservancy for the riparian corridor of the stream.

"We have an open-door policy on our ranch,” Mike says, "because we believe that sharing what we do and how we do it is the best way to implement lasting change, meet potential new partners, demonstrate the broad mutual conservation goals that can be achieved in private-land settings, and simply to make new friends.”

Armstrong Farms – Saxonburg, Pennsylvania

If you consider urban sprawl as lemons, Region I winners John and Kathy Allen and family have made lemonade.

Located just an hour north of Pittsburgh, the Angus and Shorthorn breeders put 350 of the 1,000 acres they own into a conservation easement to assure it will continue as open agricultural space. The Allens now combine a bed-and-breakfast inn, horse boarding, fee fishing and hunting, and timber enterprises with their cattle.

In the cattle operation, rotational grazing and the planting of native grasses enhanced wildlife habitat, particularly for grouse and pheasants. They've used intensive hay feeding followed by deferment to establish grass on an old mine refuse site. They worked with Ducks Unlimited to restore wetlands and riparian forest buffer.

Through on-farm innovations and their contact with the public, the Allens have demonstrated a willingness to serve as spokespeople, by action and word, for the beef industry.

Wakefield Farms – Hartwell, Georgia

Region II winners Asa and Julie Phillips and their managers turned an old, eroded cotton farm into a conservation showplace.

After buying the farm in the early 1980s, the Phillips switched from row crops to a combination of pasture, hay meadow and forest. Topsoil loss has decreased from an estimated 22 tons per acre in the 1970s to less than 1 ton today.

They fenced streams, created stream buffers, implemented rotational grazing and established wildlife food plots and movement corridors. A monitoring program shows runoff water leaves the farm as clean as it enters.

Asa and his co-managers, Todd Baldwin and Scott Fleming, view the melding of conservation and sound business in the same way, he says. “I try to see nature as an ally rather than an adversary.”

The Phillips promote their vision of the environmental stewardship by hosting many groups and speaking frequently to civic organizations.

Brad Z Ranch – Guthrie Center, Iowa

When Region III winners Jim and Mary Bradford bought their ranch in 1970, it was scarred from cropping and erosion. They planted grass and windbreaks, built ponds, and cross-fenced for rotational grazing. They established the Brad Z as an Angus and Gelbvieh seedstock operation. Today, they farm only 80 acres of 1,000.

The first year of intensive grazing produced 480 pounds of calf per acre. For winter grazing, the Bradfords lease cornstalks, utilizing "leftovers" and reducing the need for hay.

Jim fertilizes his pastures and interseeds red clover to reduce nitrogen costs. Manure from two small feedlots is applied to the 80 acres of corn ground, nearly eliminating fertilizer purchases for the row crop.

For all its innovations and beauty, the farm's primary purpose was to provide a good environment to raise a family, the Bradfords say. It worked. Eight of their nine children have at least bachelor's degrees, and the youngest is a college junior.

Goodson Ranch – Blackwell, Oklahoma

The Region IV winner, the Goodson ranch, was homesteaded by the family in 1893. Larry Goodson Cannon, grandson of the homesteaders, and his wife, Shari, managed the ranch from 1957 to 1997. Today, their youngest son, Tom Cannon, is general manager.

The Cannons' 3,700 acres of native tallgrass prairie drains into two rivers and a lake providing municipal water. They built 28 ponds to minimize erosion and to provide stock water and wildlife habitat. To make rotational grazing easier, the Cannons reduced their cow herd and added a stocker program. They've increased pounds of beef produced per acre.

The family also has established riparian buffer zones and 15 food plots for wildlife.

The 2,600 acres of farmland, mostly river bottom, is in 100 percent no-till grain production. Grassed waterways help minimize runoff. The family continues to "leave the land better" for future generations.

Sieben Live Stock Co. – Cascade, Montana

The Hibbard family’s mission statement, which they call their “family constitution," reminds them of their role as resource caretakers. It also led to their place as Region V winners.

“We are stewards first, owners second," Chase Hibbard says.

The Hibbards manage their sheep and cattle in a rest-rotation grazing pattern to help improve vegetative cover, stabilize soil and make better use of forbs and grasses. They developed water systems to improve grazing timing and distribution and to relieve pressure on riparian areas. They control noxious weeds using insects and by applying herbicides with backpack sprayers and a four-wheeler.

The family uses selective timber harvest for stand improvement and fire-fuel reduction, and allows oil and gas exploration. They manage both enterprises for a minimum of environmental disturbance.

Off the ranch, Chase has consistently worked with various groups to find common ground between agricultural producers and other land use interests.

Y Bar D Ranch – Perkinsville, Arizona

When Region VI winners George and Sharon Yard bought the 15,000-acre Horseshoe Allotment in the Prescott National Forest in 1991, it was seriously degraded. A decade of their management has turned the semi-desert ranch around.

They developed new water points, cross-fenced and implemented rotational grazing. They even herded animals to improve grazing distribution and plant health.

Their goal was to increase vegetative ground cover and decrease bare ground, allowing better rain infiltration and decreasing erosion. Monitoring by a variety of outside sources in the past five years shows the Yards are achieving these objectives.

"These days, ranching on public lands is under severe scrutiny," George says. The Yards attribute part of their success to a collaborative partnership with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, the Prescott National Forest and fellow permittees.

The Yards view cows as a tool for managing the land. A major goal of their work is to make it possible for an “environmentalist” to observe the changes and say, “Hmmm, perhaps cows can be used to enhance public land natural resources and provide food for the world.”

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