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Social - June 2002 |
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Family’s smart planting yields conservation award Sow Simple By ANDIE LEATHERMAN, LTN Staff Writer June 7, 2002 - Amy Blanton, a nurse, never planned to bale hay and drive a combine but since 1998 she has been doing just that. She and husband John have done it so well, that they’ve been named Lincoln County’s Soil and Water Conservation Farm Family of the Year. “I like being out in the open, growing something that feeds people. It’s non-confining,” she said. The couple raise hay, alfalfa, wheat, oats, barley, soy and corn on over 1,200 acres, west of Lincolnton, farming John Blanton’s family land on Andy Logan Road and their own land on Owls Den Road using a no-till planting method. “You don’t work the land. You drill what you’re planting,” Amy Blanton said. Traditional farming methods call for plowing the ground, disking to break up dirt clods and then a third trip to plant seeds. With the new no-till method, air pollution is reduced. Equipment only makes one trip over the fields cutting gas fumes by two-thirds. Drilling, instead of plowing, means no dust clouds are created. There is less soil run off also. To further reduce soil run off, the Blantons planted grass in drainage ditches. The vegetation acts as a natural filter. This is crucial because the Andy Logan Road land is less than a mile from the City of Lincolnton’s drinking water intake on the Southfork River. “It’s important we keep everything where it’s suppose to be,” John Blanton said. Small terraces, which look like dirt mounds, are created throughout the fields to slow water flow. The Blanton’s efforts caught the attention of the five-member Lincoln County Soil and Water Conservation board. “Each year they pick someone we’ve worked with that we know who is doing environmental conservation on their farm,” said Rick McSwain, county natural resource conservationist. The family will be honored in August at the annual Soil and Water Conservation banquet. A changing agricultural market means the Blantons are altering what they grow. Hay and straw are big sellers today. The growing popularity of horses is fueling the need for more hay. “It seems like everywhere you look, there is a horse,” John Blanton said. New home construction has created another market for the Blantons — selling straw to landscape companies. Profits from traditional crops like wheat and soybeans are down. The price of wheat has dropped from $3.50 a bushel when John Blanton began farming 20 years to $2.50 a bushel today. Soybeans prices have made similar drops. The couple points to soybean imports from South America as the cause. Farmers there do not have the same labor and chemical costs, nor are they held to the same strict and costly environmental protection rules. Despite the tough world market, the couple hope to continue farming. “I love it,” said Amy Blanton, who continues to work weekends as a home health nurse. “If we could afford it, I would quit my paying job.”
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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