The Wayne Soil and Water Conservation District’s Board of Supervisors and Staff would like to award the 2021 Conservation Farm Award to Bowers Farms LLC. Randy Bowers is married to Michele and they have two sons Dan (wife Mary) and David. The Bowers family farms 1,000-acres located in Chester Township and other areas of Wayne and Ashland Counties. The family has been farming since 1989, with Randy and his son Dan farming full-time. The Bowers have a crop rotation of corn, soybeans and rye cover crop in the fall. Last year they put cover crops on corn and green seeded soybeans in the standing rye. Randy usually does three test plots per year - 2 corn and 1 beans. Bowers Farms utilizes conservation practices including corn that is strip-tilled or no till, numerous sod waterways, cover crops, subsurface nutrient application through strip-till and vertical tillage on cornstalks in the fall and spring. Because of their commitment to conservation, please join us on congratulating Randy, Dan, Michele and David, of Bowers Farms in winning the 2021 Conservation Farm Award!

Randy stated, “It is an honor and surprise to receive this award. We try to look at our conservation practices as the right thing to do with the soils we farm, and not so much as a profit center. What we are realizing however is that the conservation practices we employ are indeed paying us back. Be nice to your soil and it will be nice to you. No man is an island. We have had lot of help along our conservation journey. To our mentors, suppliers, neighbors, friends and family who have helped in any way, please accept our most sincere thanks and know that you too share in this award.”