Pompey farm named 2018 Conservation Farm of the Year
Dennis Family Farms in Pompey was recently recognized as the 2018 Conservation Farm of the Year by Onondaga County Soil & Water (OCSW), receiving a plaque and visit from several local elected officials earlier this month to commend the 100-cow dairy and cash crop farm for its successful conservation methods, the first of which was implemented three generations ago, and continues today.
Third-generation farmer Craig Dennis and his father Carl have owned and operated this 400-acre farm along U.S. Route 20 since 1944. Situated in the Limestone Creek watershed, which runs into Oneida Lake, Craig Dennis said conservation has always been a priority, and began when his grandfather started implementing strip farming, a farming method involving cultivating a field, divided in narrow strips, and alternating in a crop rotation system. The method, useful for slopes that are too steep and in preventing soil erosion, may be the conservation method Dennis’ grandfather is most proud of, as it has maintained its effectiveness to this day, said Dennis.
Since then, the farm has gone on to implement several Best Management Practices (BMPs), which are methods proven to be effective in preventing or reducing sediment and nutrient pollution caused by farm operations, and received recognition for doing so this January. The award from OCSW, said Craig Dennis, was “a large surprise.”
“It’s a big honor,” he said. “It’s something we didn’t expect.”
On Monday, Jan. 4, Assemblyman Al Stirpe, County Legislator David Knapp and other local dignitaries, like representatives for Congressman John Katko and district board members Wayne Norris and David Coburn, visited the farm to award the family the plaque and to commend them for its implementation of five BMPs, which include:
• Clean water exclusion using driplines that safely collect clean stormwater and route it underground to water courses
• Concrete barnyard with manure collection and a screen to collect polluted runoff and direct the runoff to a grass filter treatment area
• Implemented 33-acre rotational grazing system in 2012 with an alternative water supply to prevent cows from drinking or defecating in the tributary to Limestone Creek
• Milkhouse waste water treatment using a settling tank, grease trap and grass filter treatment area
• Soil and manure sampling for nutrient analysis and fertilizer recommendations
• 4,400 LF (linear feet) of exclusion fencing to create a 25-foot buffer from the top of the bank to bar cows from the tributary
To protect water quality, the farm has also participated in several demonstration projects featuring GPS technology to grow corn on their land for local farm equipment supplier Empire Tractor. With a GPS precision-controlled tractor, Craig Dennis said it can coordinate the fields so it could track where it last drove and can guide itself along the same path to offer more precise tilling, planting, spraying and harvesting.
Craig Dennis said the farm chose to implement these particular practices largely due to “convenience and cash flow,” but said the farm’s dedication to conservation extends beyond that — it stems from its dedication to the crops they grow to feed their cows, and have found that the more they conserve, the more it increases its crop yields.
