Lake Family Farms receives 2019 Leopold Conservation Award
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By Amber Hayden
BOYCEVILLE — It has been a long year for the Lakes since they missed earning the Leopold Conservation Award in 2018, but 2019 has been a year of accomplishments for Jeff and Kelley Lake along with their two children April and Jake.
In 2018 and 2019 Jeff was nominated by his daughter April for the Leopold Award. Jeff explained that April had added in the latest things they had been working on regarding conservation in 2019 that would help the Lakes win this year’s award.
Some of the things that April shared were that the Lakes will be adding prescribed burn and sustainable clear cutting in certain areas for wildlife and tree enhancements with the help of Jeff’s brother Ricky.
Also, the Lakes have been working on irrigation water management to produce a water budget, expanding buffers in certain areas, honing in on the biological activity in the soil, grazing management practices and growing out cowherd, utilizing crop residue, continuing to expand cover crops and prairie grass enhancements, honing in on nutrition, nitrogen management, and continuously working to minimize chemical fertilizer dependency by using biologicals.
The priority for the Lakes, though, is to leave the land better for future generations. “I think with any farmer or self-employed person that every time we step out our front door to start the day, we are focusing on ways to do better and produce up to our own standards,” Jeff explained.
During the summer, Lake Farms were hosts to Farm Field Days, which is put together by the Land and Conservation division of Dunn County, in which several topics were discussed including stream biology and precision Ag.
Jeff and Kelley stated it is not only important for farming to have the Farm Field Days, but it also allows farmers and non-farmers to discuss the issues that are faced in seed selection on farms.
It also allows for feedback from other farmers and what may be working on their farm. Stream biology, for example, is vital to keeping the streams next to the farm healthy.
“It is important to know what
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I am doing on my farm on a community outlook and know how it affects people in my community downstream,” Jeff stated. “Healthy water for everyone and the wildlife it supports and sustains as we all know is priceless.”
As for precision Ag, it is allowing farmers to share thoughts that help the Lakes on their farm and others around them to make management decisions that will allow farmers to make cost effective changes that could benefit them financially and are environmentally sound, according to Jeff.
“My thoughts on soil health are if you have healthy soils, that leads to healthy water and healthy crops,” Jeff said. “That will lead to healthy animals and healthy people.
UW Discovery Farms is also helping the Lakes with their nitrogen use efficiency by studying two strips of land since 2018. One is irrigated and the other is non-irrigated. This allows the Lakes to know how much is too much, and it also lets them know how much the biologicals in the soil are giving nitrogen back to the plant naturally.
Patrick Geoghegan, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin’s senior Vice President of Marketing and Industry Relations, said during Thursday’s announcement that Jeff along with his family are using modern technologies to cultivate the land and resources within their care.
The Lake farm has been working with National Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) and Land and Conservation offices to try different practices, procedures, and experiences to be able to relay and share information during the field days.
Jeff and Jake use SMS software to gather information on their fields that are either producing or failing to produce, and use Profitzone manager through Pheasants Forever to interpret the information.
“We would like to have more field days to expand on community knowledge, we also work with the Hay River Water Shed group, UW-Extension Discovery Farms, and Pheasants Forever,” commented Jeff.
John Sipple of NRCS has helped guide the Lakes on the decisions for habitats at the farm, including which pollinator they would like to have blooming in early, middle, and late fall blooming. For deer, pheasant and turkeys the Lakes do several types of clovers, brassicas, native and non-native grasses in specific areas as well as sustainable forest management planning that ties into those habitat areas.
“We are all a part of our community, and we all have a stake in this,” Jeff stated. “We all want to do what we can to protect the future of our resources. We are all just renters of this land.”
In 2018, David Geiser of New Holstein received the Leopold award.
The Leopold award recognizes a landowner’s achievements in voluntary conservation and is presented in 20 states across the U.S.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” — Aldo Leopold – A Sand County Almanac.