WATT PoultryUSA - April 2010

»ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLANCE AWARDS with three turkey pullet houses on it. The family raises replacement breeders, 9,000 hens and 800 toms per ;ock, for Cargill in dark-out houses.

Glenn and Tracey Backes, Backes Farm

modate this much litter, so 90% of the litter is sold to neighboring farmers.

In addition to raising replacement breeders, the family bottle-feeds calves and has a small apple orchard and vegetable gardens.

Backes Farm was named the winner in the South Central region.

❯❯Hibbard Farms: Improving
the land

When Clay and Melissa Hibbard purchased 320 acres of cropland in Adair, Oklahoma, in 1993 they started right away working to improve the neglected soil, and they haven’t stopped working on it. Hibbard Farms now encompasses 340 acres and has two poultry houses with 30,000 broiler breeders per ;ock raised under contract with Tyson Foods. The family also raises cattle.

The Hibbards have installed over 3. 5 miles of cross fencing so that the pastures can be managed with rotational grazing. All of the creeks have been fenced to keep cattle out, and ponds have been built to provide water

Clay and Melissa Hibbard, Hibbard Farms

for the cattle. Because of the low phosphorous levels of the native soil, all of the farm’s litter can be used to improve the soil on the farm. Buffer strips 100 feet wide are maintained around creeks and litter is not spread in them. Twenty acres of the farm are maintained in native prairie grasses to provide habitat for wildlife.