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.