CALLANDS — The Virginia Farm Bureau has awarded Callands beef and poultry producer Robert Mills Jr. with its first VFB Federation Young Farmer Environmental Stewardship Award.
Mills is a first generation farmer who owns and operates Briar View Farms Poultry.
The Farm Bureau said it chose Mills because of his commitment to environmental stewardship.
Over the past five years, he has worked to protect water quality and prevent erosion, the Farm Bureau said in a news release.
He has created 64,000 feet of riparian buffers by fencing cattle out of streams, installing water systems and planting trees, the release states. Mills also has converted 350 acres of high erodible cropland to permanent grass cover.
Twelve hundred of his acres are on a nutrient management plan and 15 acres are under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program.
In addition, he practices no-till farming wherever possible and uses land terraces, contour farming and strip cropping to limit erosion, the Farm Bureau said.
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