Family Farm Wins National Environmental Stewardship Award

The Yon Family Farm out of Ridge Spring, S.C. recently won the 2009 National Environmental Stewardship Award for their conservation efforts throughout their farm at this years Cattle Industry Annual Convention. The Yon family can be considered by many as everyday environmentalist like most of us and do their part in every aspect of their farm to make a difference.

National Environmental Stewardship Award

In order to reward land stewards such as farmers and ranchers for their conservation and environmental efforts, the Environmental Stewardship Program was created in the early 1990’s. The common goal of the winners of this award is to maintain the condition of the land in the same if not better shape for future generations to use. It also provides other cattle producers with ideas on how they can apply similar methods to their own farm. It’s great to see that cattle farmers are making a change and it shows. Greenhouse gases have decreased by 4% among agriculture and America now has 16 million more acres of forestland thanks to this organization.

The Yon Family

After reading about the great efforts this family has taken to lower their impact on the environment, I just had to share it on my blog. Kevin and Lydia Yon started their farm 12 years ago after both graduating from Clemson University. They wanted to start a farm that could be passed onto their kids. Their farm has expanded from 100 to 800 cows and they now own more than 1,500 acres of ground. Some of the things they have done in order to win this award include:

Irrigating crops with pond-water using an efficient, low pressure watering system;

Planting crops using a no-till, rotational sequence to improve soil fertility and reduce erosion;

Sampling forage and soil to monitor proper fertilizer application;

Reinforcing more than 34,000 square feet of high traffic areas around barns, water troughs and feed bunks to prevent erosion and protect water quality;

Installing 28 water troughs and 55,352 feet of fencing to facilitate rotational grazing on pasture land; and

Managing farm ponds to encourage healthy wildlife habitat.

I really hope that the recognition of this great family’s work spreads and other farms begin using similar methods to make a difference in this country.

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