NORWICH – The Chenango County Soil and Water Conservation District named their selections for 2009 Farm of the Year and the Annual Forester Achievement Award at their annual luncheon last week, held at the Canasawacta Country Club in Norwich.
Tumilowicz Farms in New Berlin, operated by Robert and Valare Tumilowicz, was named Conservation Farm of the Year.
According to SWC&D District Planner Robert DeClue, the award is given annually to a farm which has “demonstrated exemplary stewardship of its soil and water resources.” The Tumilowiczs fit the bill, he explained, because of the best management practices they have implemented over the last four years as part of an intensive conservation program.
“Since 2005, Bob has reduced soil erosion by implementing soil conserving cropping rotations, rehabilitating old diversion ditches and waterways, and converting some highly erodible land to permanent hay or pasture land,” DeClue reported. “He has improved water quality on the many farm streams and ponds by fencing cows out of those water resources, planting grass buffer strips along the edges of fields and installing a barnyard runoff system.”
The Tumilowiczs completed their conservation plan this summer, he said, thus prompting receipt of the award which Bob’s parents, Nick and Laura Tumilowicz are also past recipients.
“Small hill top farms like this one can make money, but you have to know your cows and your land,” Bob Tumilowicz said, after SWC&D Chairman Bob Briggs presented him with the award. “To make a living dairy farming in the hills of Chenango County, you have to integrate your cows with a grazing and grassland forage system that maximizes production and quality, and minimizes labor and cash inputs.”
At the moment, the New Berlin dairyman said he intents to continue farming for another decade, during which time he hopes to gradually turn over the operation to his son Alex.
“As time goes on, I plan on cutting back some, but I’ll always keep the place in the family and as a farm,” he explained.
During the luncheon, the Forestry Achievement Award was presented to James and Shirley Kenyon. According to Forester Paul Romanenko, who presented the award, the Kenyons were selected for their forestry management and conservation efforts on a 76 acre parcel of land they own in the Town of Oxford.
The Kenyons re-aquired the woodlot, which was part of a 340-acre farm they operated as a dairy from the late 70s to mid 80s, approximately a decade ago, the forester explained.
“Jim told me he always had been especially fond of this area, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to once again purchase the parcel,” said Romanenko, who has worked closely with the Kenyons over the last two years.
After an taking an initial walk through of the property with the couple in 2007, the forester said that he quickly realized their love for their land and enjoyment of the woods.
“Jim and Shirley both knew that if managed wisely, their forestland could continue to provide much needed resources such as lumber for construction projects, certainly fuel wood to heat the home, income from occasional timber harvests, and a good wildlife habitat for hunting and so forth,” he said.
Romanenko explained that he had worked with the couple to develop a Forest Stewardship Plan, which included thinning and other treatments designed to improve the health of the trees as well as the understory. The couple has been steadily implementing the recommendations, he said, adding that the results of their labor are already visible.
“The Kenyons’ goals, passion, ambition and dedication to good forest and land management represent all the things this award is meant to recognize,” said Romanenko as, with the help of SWC&D Vice-Chairman Paul Lathrop, he presented the couple with the award.
Both the Kenyons and the Tumilowiczs also received certificates of recognition from the New York State Soil & Water Conservation Committee and citations from the New York State Assembly, signed by Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, in recognition of their achievements.