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Brown bros. win ‘green’ award |
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Thursday, 21 August 2008 |
Conservation district board bestows cooperator award
By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
For the second time in three years, a set of brothers took home the Outstanding Cooperator Award during Tuesday’s 62nd annual meeting of the Auglaize Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).
Alan and Lou Brown, owners of Brownhaven Farm, were bestowed the honors in front of more than 200 people gathered in the St. Joseph Parish Life Center.
The brothers earned the award after their years of conservation work with the SWCD.
“It’s very humbling to us,” Lou Brown said. “This is not something we tried to do.”
SWCD Manure Management Specialist and Education Coordinator Frances Springer said the New Bremen brothers undying commitment to applying conservation methods to their farms set them apart from others considered for the award.
“They’ve just invested so much money, and they’ve opened up their operation to several different groups for soil and water training,” Springer said. “They have let us use their farms for case studies for several different things. If a program comes out, they go out and promote it.”
Springer said some of the programs instituted by the brothers include the construction and eventual expansion of several manure holding ponds, the construction of a new milkhouse and the construction of manure dry stacks at both Lou’s and Alan’s farms.
Springer said both have also been very proactive in the promoting of watershed programs at Grand Lake St. Marys.
“We have about 175 milk cows and 120 head of bigger heifers at the heifer farm, so we are constantly looking for manure management practices,” Lou said. “We just tried to implement as many possible conservation programs as we could.”
Alan Brown said he was floored when he learned he would be receiving the award along with his brother.
“I didn’t know we were in the running for any type of award,” Alan Brown said. “When Frances told us, it was a shock to me. I didn’t know they did this. I was totally surprised.”
Before the Brown brothers accepted their award, the SWCD gave out its auxiliary scholarship award as well as the awards for the soil judging contest.
Tyler Shipp, a 2008 graduate of Wapakoneta High School, was named the recipient of the $500 scholarship award.
Shipp plans to attend the Lima branch of The Ohio State University, studying agri-business and applied sciences.
The Wapakoneta FFA took first place in the urban soil judging competition with Nick Green taking individual first place honors.
The rural soil judging competition top honors went to the Minster FFA with New Bremen’s Kurt Brown garnering the individual first place distinction. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 21 August 2008 )
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