To conserve soil and protect water quality, Gaddis Farms uses conservation tillage in planting ryegrass and row crops and uses grass filter strips near cultivated fields. Streamside buffers provide timber. They remove manure from concentrated feeding areas and apply it where crops can benefit. Farm managers worked with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to develop a deer management plan and to monitor wild turkey populations. Habitat improvement is a criterion in managing timber production and CRP acres.
Food plots feed deer and ducks.
The operation now includes a hunting club and hunting leases. Morgan Cattle Company, Chickasha, Oklahoma Converting 1,000 acres of rolling, unproductive farmland to soil-stabilizing bermudagrass pasture is just one the conservation measures employed by Region IV winners Ralph and Evelyn Morgan. The Morgans also built terraces and shaped and seeded grassed waterways. Their 24 ponds help prevent flooding, collect sediment and provide water for livestock. A lagoon system handles and distributes waste and runoff water from the feedlot.