Cooperator Spotlight

Conservation Farmer of the Year Award

Betty has been as been a cattle rancher since 1983.  She manages an angus/charolais cow/calf herd along with harvesting seed and hay on her acres and rented acres.  Betty is very proactive in maintaining her ranch, by conducting early maintenance and using best management practices such as rotational grazing, As a result, Betty has only utilized cost-share funds a few times.  Betty received District cost-share to stop some gully erosion by constructing a pond and to smooth and reseed erosional areas with critical area treatments.  Betty has also utilized the continuous CRP program by installing wildlife habitat buffers around old small ponds.  A well, pipe lines, and waterers were installed to provide the livestock with water after fencing excluded the ponds.  Betty manages a healthy forest by eliminating exotics while maintaining good ground cover and making firewood from cull and downed trees.  She has excluded the livestock from a stream that runs through the middle of her ranch which maintains water quality and stream bank stability.

As a result of Betty’s work ethic, pride of ownership, and dedication to the resources of her ranch and the farms that she rents, the Perry County Soil and Water Conservation District would like to award Betty Zoellner with the 2015 Conservation Farmer of the Year Award.