Essex Region – The Winner of the 2019 Conservation Farm Award was announced at the Essex Soil & Crop Improvement Association (ESCIA) Annual Meeting on Thursday, December 5, 2019. The award is presented each year to the farming operation which best display’s conservation minded farming practices from those nominated. The farms are graded on tillage practices, crop rotation, chemical use and storage, knowledge of fertility programs, Best Management Practices and overall farm maintenance. The winner is determined by a committee of Directors from the Essex Soil & Crop Improvement Association. This year the winner of the Conservation Farm Award is Paquette Farms of Malden Ltd.
Features of Paquette Farms include use of red clover for a cover crop; minimum till and no-till cropping; precision soil sampling; variable rate fertilizer application; water and sediment control structures and rock chutes to reduce soil erosion; and buffer strips along water courses. Paquette’s have planted thousands of white cedar trees in windbreaks on many of their farms in the Amherstburg area. Robert farms together with sons Richard, Gerald and Bradley. They have participated in the Canada-Ontario Environmental Farm Plan program, and the Essex Region Conservation Authority’s Clean Water ~ Green spaces program. They have used these programs to implement many of the Best Management Practices on their farms.
Congratulations to Paquette Farms and keep up the fine work!
The Essex Conservation Farm Award is sponsored annually by the Essex Soil and Crop Improvement Association, and the Essex Region Conservation Authority.
Nominations for the 2020 Conservation Farm Award are being accepted from now until August 28, 2020 with the winner to be announced at the ESCIA Annual Meeting next December. For more information on how to nominate an individual contact Michael Dick at 776-5209 ext. 369.
Media Contacts:
Michael Dick, Secretary
Essex Soil and Crop Improvement Association
(519) 776-5209 ext. 369
mdick@erca.org
