SUTTON, W.Va. — Two Potomac Valley farms recognized for their efforts to protect soil, water and other resources received the top West Virginia Conservation Farm of the Year awards during a recent recognition ceremony in Sutton.
Cottage Hill Farm in Grant County (Traditional Farm) and Powder Keg Farms in Hampshire County (Non-Traditional Farm) received the awards during the West Virginia Conservation Partnership Conference luncheon.
W.C. “Sonny” and Carole Taylor own and operate Cottage Hill Farm and Gini and Brian LaMaster own and operate Powder Keg Farms.
Each farm received a $1,000 award and the use of a tractor from Middletown Tractor Sales in Fairmont, a longtime sponsor of the conservation farm awards.
Both farms have demonstrated a commitment to conservation practices that protect soil, land, water and related resources. Both are also within the Potomac Valley Conservation District.
West Virginia farms are eligible for the Conservation Farm of the Year honor after winning at the county, district and area levels. Two groups of judges visited both farms in September, as well as the other finalists’ farms, and graded them on their use of best management practices, impact on ecological systems and community-based activities.
Cottage Hill Farm was in the running with finalists the Furrow Family Farm at Waiteville in Monroe County and Dague Stock Farm at Valley Grove in Ohio County. Powder Keg Farms was in the Non-Traditional contest with In the Nook Farm of Burnsville in Braxton County and Harper Farms at Gallipolis Ferry in Mason County.
The farms in the Traditional category are more large-scale operations that include livestock like cattle, poultry, sheep and goats, as well as fruit and vegetable farming. The Non-Traditional category includes farms with small-scale horticulture practices, but ones that still may incorporate some smaller livestock.
Cottage Hill Farm, in Petersburg, is a 1,000-acre purebred Hereford cow/calf operation that also holds six broiler houses.
W.C. Taylor has implemented numerous conservation practices on the farm over many years, including no-till planting, cover crops, nutrient management, prescribed grazing and rotational grazing of cattle, and wildlife and forest friendly practices.
By rotating cattle through multiple paddocks and allowing areas of the farm to rest more than 21 days, Taylor has extended his grazing season and cut back on the date each year he would need to start feeding hay.
His use of contour strips in hillside crop fields has slowed surface water runoff, which reduces erosion and ultimately improves water quality. He was an early user of phosphorous-based nutrient application rates to protect water quality, and served on a Governor’s Water Quality Committee, due to his early adoption of conservation practices.
He took on critical area planting around the poultry houses, and used soil samples and a nutrient management plan to properly spread nutrients, which helps protect water quality. He also built a waste storage facility, or littershed, before there was cost-share funding available to build the facilities. He’s also taken on energy efficiency practices, using attic insulation, lights, heaters and doors, in the poultry houses.
The Taylors are very active in their community, having served on various farm-related boards and committees, in 4-H leadership roles and they have opened their farm up to research projects and field days in collaboration with WVU Extension.
Brad Smith of WVU Extension told judges the Taylors’ and other volunteers’ involvement in a research project helped West Virginia develop the voluntary programs that are helping the state meet its goals to protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
In 2019, Carole Taylor received a West Virginia Women in Agriculture award. Cottage Hill Farm also received an international Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award in 2007.
W.C. Taylor also had served for more than 40 years as a district supervisor on the Potomac Valley Conservation District.
Powder Keg Farms, in High View, is a ridgetop farm that practices numerous conservation efforts, along with an educational component.
In their submission packet for the farm of the year award, Powder Keg Farms noted that the farm “is operated by farmers who care deeply about how food is grown, not only so it nourishes bodies, but also so it nourishes the earth.”
The farm operates three high tunnels, raised beds and other garden areas where vegetables are grown, and keeps livestock that include some cattle, Nigerian Dwarf goats, Light Brahma chickens, Muscovy ducks and a nine-hive apiary of honeybees for pollination, honey, wax and propolis.
While the livestock provide meat, milk and eggs, their manure also helps to serve the needs of the vegetable operation.
The conservation practices on the farm include soil conservation through no-till planting, cover crops to feed the soil, use of manure as fertilizer, using food scraps or weeds for compost, and only having smaller-size animals on the farm, which reduces soil compaction. Their water conservation efforts, among many other practices, include the use of drip irrigation in the high tunnels, spreading a mulch around plants that conserves moisture, reduces field evaporation, prevents weeds and rebuilds soil fertility, and protecting creeks and ponds with generous vegetative buffers.
The LaMasters’ many conservation efforts also include using sunlight efficiently with the high tunnels, efforts to conserve old, rare and heirloom seeds, and practices that also benefit the surrounding forestland and wildlife around the farm.
The educational side of the farm includes teaching children how to grow vegetables and raise animals, a community program where locals in the Hampshire County area help with work on the farm and then return home with vegetables, and a missions-based program where missionaries or individuals from other countries learn about the LaMasters’ farming methods and take it back home to their countries.
A propagation house/classroom workspace on the farm helps the farm operators and educators like Stephanie Stevens fulfill both the conservation practices and the educational aspects of Powder Keg Farms.