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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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