By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia

Jimmy Petty stood tall, his clear, bright eyes surveying the
farm. Years of knowing the land and his family’s stake in it
were drawn deep into the character of his face. Almost a
century of the Pettys’ history is tilled into this soil.

“We work hard to be better stewards of this land for our
grandchildren,” he said of his family’s toil on the 6,000-acre
farm straddling the Georgia-Tennessee line near Chatsworth,
Ga. “We hope to leave it in even better shape for them.”

Gov. Sonny Perdue acknowledged the success of the family’s
labors on March 21, and presented them the first Governor’s
Agricultural Environmental Stewardship Award at the kickoff
ceremony for National Agriculture Week in Atlanta.

Petty’s brother Jerry and his wife Phenna accepted the award.

A century of conservation

The Petty farm has been in the family since 1915. Three
brothers (Jimmy, Don and Jerry) and their four sons now farm
it. They run a dairy and grow corn, soybeans and cover crops of
wheat.

Perdue recognized the Pettys for not only using sound
conservation methods in their farming but also for creating a
stream buffer to protect the Conasauga River, which runs
through their land.

“Get this,” Perdue said during the award ceremony. “They not
only created a buffer to protect the river on their land, but
the river water is actually cleaner when it leaves their farm
than when it entered.”

Regional winners

The new award is sponsored by the Governor’s Agriculture
Advisory Commission. It was developed to recognize farmers in
five state regions who use conservation and best management
practices that protect and conserve natural resources in their
day-to-day operations.

Regional winners include Dick Phillips of Hartwell; Glen, John
and R.W. Walters of Barnesville; Bob Rawlins of Rebecca; and
Kenneth Durrence of Claxton.

“I always say that farmers were the original conservation
stewards of the land,” Perdue said.

Protecting the river

“We consider it huge when a farmer creates a … stream buffer
(1,000 feet long),” said Cindy Askew, a district
conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Natural Resources Conservation Service. “The Pettys have
created a stream buffer that stretches 15 miles.”

The family has created a 35-foot forested buffer and a 30-foot
green buffer. And they’re planning to add more.

“All this was done out of a love for the land before there were
even any incentives in place,” Askew said. “Any new lands they
add will come under the incentives program. But they’ve done it
without incentives because they saw the benefits.”

Additional benefits

Creating a stream buffer takes part of a farmer’s land out of
production. But the Pettys have found it to be worth the loss.
Since they began their conservation reserve along the river,
they’ve seen more wildlife on their farm.

“We began to see more quail,” Petty said. “But we also brought
some in to help repopulate the quail.” They’ve seen more
bobcats and bears, too.

A five-member selection committee, representing each of the
regions, selected a winning farmer from each region. They then
toured each of the regional winners’ farms and selected the
state winner based on the tours and interviews.

“We’re proud to see the Petty family recognized for the
outstanding work they’ve done over the years in Murray County,”
said Louis Dykes, the UGA Cooperative Extension coordinator in
Murray County.

Dykes said he nominated the Pettys “because of the strong
reputation they have in this region for their conservation
practices.”