Farm of the Year, Forester Achievement Award named

NORWICH – The Chenango County Soil and Water Conservation District named their selections for 2009 Farm of the Year and the Annual Forester Achievement Award at their annual luncheon last week, held at the Canasawacta Country Club in Norwich.

Tumilowicz Farms in New Berlin, operated by Robert and Valare Tumilowicz, was named Conservation Farm of the Year.

According to SWC&D District Planner Robert DeClue, the award is given annually to a farm which has “demonstrated exemplary stewardship of its soil and water resources.” The Tumilowiczs fit the bill, he explained, because of the best management practices they have implemented over the last four years as part of an intensive conservation program.

“Since 2005, Bob has reduced soil erosion by implementing soil conserving cropping rotations, rehabilitating old diversion ditches and waterways, and converting some highly erodible land to permanent hay or pasture land,” DeClue reported. “He has improved water quality on the many farm streams and ponds by fencing cows out of those water resources, planting grass buffer strips along the edges of fields and installing a barnyard runoff system.”

The Tumilowiczs completed their conservation plan this summer, he said, thus prompting receipt of the award which Bob’s parents, Nick and Laura Tumilowicz are also past recipients.

“Small hill top farms like this one can make money, but you have to know your cows and your land,” Bob Tumilowicz said, after SWC&D Chairman Bob Briggs presented him with the award. “To make a living dairy farming in the hills of Chenango County, you have to integrate your cows with a grazing and grassland forage system that maximizes production and quality, and minimizes labor and cash inputs.”