Georgia: No More Row to Hoe on this Farm

Maybe you could say that some people are born conservationists and some have conservation thrust upon them because it makes the best business sense. Ask Asa Phillips and he’ll tell you it was the economic benefits that first got his attention.

“I didn’t start out a conservationist; it was just the right thing to do to make the business successful,” Phillips says from his farm in Hartwell, Georgia.

Phillips and his wife, Julie, pieced together their 1,400-acre farm by buying several small, heavily-cropped farms. Collectively, the abused farmland was losing a whopping 22 tons of soil per acre per year! Today the farm averages just one ton per acre annually.

The Phillips gradually converted the hard used row crop farms to a cow-calf operation with heifers, steers, bulls, recipient embryo transplant cows, and harvested timber. Cattle were fenced out of streams and ponds beginning in 1993. Nine wells, 30 watering troughs, and cattle crossings now handle the watering and traffic needs. Active forage, soil, and water studies give needed environmental and economic feedback.

“Nature and man must be in balance... It has been our goal to bring things back in balance and that required fine tuning in soil erosion, water quality, wildlife habitat, watersheds, and other areas,” Phillips said.

NRCS Quote: “They stopped erosion in the fields through management…permanent cover, pasture rotation grazing…and using non-highly erodible land for crops.”--Forrest Ferguson, District Conservationist

Conservation At-A-Glance: 1) Conservation tillage (no-till); 2) ongoing soil and water monitoring; 3) field demonstration site; 4) prescribed grazing (rotational); 5) conservation buffers (cattle crossings, streambank stabilization, fencing); 6) watering facilities (wells and troughs); 7) pasture and hayland plantings; 9) wildlife management (food plots, vegetated fencerows and buffers); 10) integrated pest management; 11) crop rotation

NRCS Participation: NRCS Conservation Technical Assistance; conservation plan for converting eroded cropland to cattle production; engineering and erosion control assistance for cattle crossings across streams and stabilization of supporting streambanks.

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