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Farmers honored by Soil Conservation District
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Lisa Hobbs
Updated: Oct 21, 2011, 12:50 AM
Published: Oct 21, 2011, 12:54 AM

Warren County Soil Conservation District held its 2011 Conservation Farmer Awards luncheon Wednesday at Gondola. The event honored two farm owners for their conservation efforts.
“We want to thank both of you for your dedication to the conservation of our natural resources,” said Warren SCD supervisor Bill Demonbreun.
Awards were presented to Stubblefield Farm, owned by Steve and Jill Stubblefield, and the Elam Farm, owned by David and Brenda Elam.
Steve and Jill Stubblefield moved to Viola in 1982 to run the family farm. Steve grew up in Arkansas where his parents were farmers, producing cotton, soybeans, wheat and maintaining a 50-head cattle herd on 800 acres of northeast Arkansas delta farmland.
The Viola farm has been in the Stubblefield family continuously since 1814. It is currently owned by Steve and Jill, and Steve’s aunt, Carolyn Stubblefield.
Steve and Jill own 110 acres — 25 acres are in nursery, 20 acres are in woodland, and the remaining acres are in hay and pastureland and the farmstead.
Through the years, the farm has been used in the production of grass, pastures, alfalfa hay, grass hay, soybeans, corn, wheat and livestock, including cattle and hogs and an occasional horse or two. Currently, the farm is producing hay, pasture and nursery crops.
Steve and Jill acquired the farm in 1998 from family members and continue to raise hay and cattle. During that time, they have carried out various conservation practices including: livestock water, heavy use stream crossings, strip cropping and contour cropping systems, rotation grazing, exclusion fencing, and use drift reduction technologies on precision spraying.
As for the Elam farm, David Elam was born in 1950 and has lived in the Morrison area his entire life. He grew up on a working farm as the son of Rayford and Vada Dyer Elam. He helped his father milk cows and grow crops on the family farm. He bought his father’s daily herd in 1976 and moved the milking operation to his own farm of 154 acres.
A member of the last graduating class from Morrison High School, David has a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry from Tennessee Tech. During his college days he commuted every day and farmed in the evening after classes.
He married Wanda Lockridge in 1970 and they had two children, Stacie and James. He was married 37 years. Wanda passed away in 2008.
In 2009, he married Brenda Amsden of Pegram, Tenn. Together the couple has seven grandchildren they love to spend time with whenever possible.
David has been a 39-year member, as well as past president, of Morrison Ruritan Club. He is a member of Shady Grove Baptist Church where he has attended since he was a child.
In addition to farming, he believed there was a need for farming supplies in the Morrison area. He started Morrison Hardware with his parents and later bought them out.
Currently, he owns 285 acres, has 40 milking cows, 25 beef cattle and raises Holstein bull calves. He rents 750 acres for his crops of corn and soybeans as well as hay.
NRCS state conservationist Kevin Brown, Warren County Executive John Pelham and all the members of Warren County’s SCD attended the event.
Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Published: Apr 2, 2025, 11:31 PM

Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community