TodayFamily in running for national farm award
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Robert Boyce prepares to move the fencing on his beef-producing farm. (Wally Shank/The Sentinel)
A Lower Mifflin Township farm couple have been selected as one of seven regional winners nationwide of the 2005 Environmental Stewardship Award Program.
Robert and Kate Boyce are owners and operators of Lil' Ponderosa Enterprises and were nominated by the Pennsylvania Cattlemen's Association.
Sponsored by Dow AgroSciences and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the program recognizes cattle producers whose stewardship practices are inventive, cost-effective and contribute to environmental conservation.
"This award program acknowledges cattle producers who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to preserve natural resources, says Stacey Katseanes, coordinator of the program. "People who devote their lives to working the land embody the true meaning of environmentalists and for this Pennsylvania family, conservation is a lifetime commitment that has greatly rewarded them.
"Lil' Ponderosa Enterprises demonstrates how today's cattlemen utilize creative technologies and innovations to operate a profitable and environmentally friendly business."
Cattle grass-fed
Lil' Ponderosa Enterprises encompasses three businesses. including Angus cattle, thoroughbred horses and a combination of distributorships for Grazing Solutions products.
But raising grass-fed purebred black Angus beef cattle is the Boyces' main focus. About 120 head are grazed on the farm.
The family sells 25 to 50 head each year for freezer beef and about 25 for seed stock — starter cattle for new herds. Freezer beef are raised to 16 to 18 months of age before they are butchered under U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection and processed under state health inspectors.
The Boyces decided to raise grass-fed beef because of "the health aspects," Robert Boyce says.
"In order to do the healthy beef, it requires that you put the cattle into a disease-free, open-air, sun-filled environment," he says.
"The second aspect: We firmly believe you can make a living on a family farm if you limit costs. People are driven to make ever higher gross amounts because they keep driving up the costs" with new tractors and big barns.
Unlike most cattle farmers, Boyce lets his livestock do most of the work. He plants no corn or grain and has no barns to clean. Boyce moves fences daily but, for most of the year, his cattle feed themselves on pastures that are a 40/60 ratio of legumes to grass. He matches the grasses and legumes he plants to the soil.
"We don't have feed lots. We don't need near the mechanization," he says. "It allows a small operation to succeed."
Since purchasing the farm 18 years ago, the Boyces have implemented conservation practices to increase the quality and production levels of their land.
The virtues of beauty
Boyce jokes that from the beginning the couple followed conservation practices because they wanted a "pretty" operation.
"We wanted our farm to present an image that was conducive to friendly, open living and our friends would want to come see us here" Boyce says.
"One of the first things that we introduced was spring development. If you want to keep your animals out of the streams, you have to have alternative water sources."
Subsequently the Boyces completed a stream bank fencing project which kept the cattle out.
"We developed a contour and terraced landscape that controlled the water runoff and we did a managed intensive grazing rotational system that would ensure the grass was never eaten below a level that would let it recover fast and let it remain in a healthy state," Boyce says.
"You might call this a project in motion. We keep working at it."
Colorado, here they come
The Boyces were recognized this summer as a regional winner of the ESAP award.
They will travel to Denver in February when one of the seven regional winners will be named the national winner at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association annual convention.
