Use of No-till Leads to a Reduction in Soil Erosion for Laurens County Farmer

Hogan Farms consists of 950 acres utilizing conservation tillage; they grow wheat, oats, peanuts, cotton, and soybeans. They also manage 40 acres of pasture land, 104 acres of hayland and 700 acres of timberland. Of the 700 acres of woodland, 119 acres are enrolled in the longleaf Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

Hogan Farms also raises Black Angus, Limousine and Belgian Blue Cows. In addition, Quarter and Paint Horses are raised for show and sell. When it comes to conservation Hogan believes in spreading the wealth. "We have tried to work closely with all of the agriculture agencies to stay current on the proper way of doing things, said Hogan."

Hogan learned about USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a child growing up on the farm. “As a young boy, I remember my mother talking with the district conservationist about what she could do to conserve the natural resources of our farm. I didn’t realize then that she was concerned about “sustainability” of our farm. Some of her early efforts were to get a farm plan and then to sign up some of the marginal land into the old soil bank program.

Working with NRCS is just a given to me if I am going to be a landowner,” said Hogan. He is active in four different agriculture organizations; he is a member in the Laurens County Cattleman’s Association, the American Quarter Horse Association, the Laurens County Saddle Club, and he is chairman of Farm Bureau Equine Committee. In addition to hosting field and legislative tours to promote conservation practices, Hogan has implemented many conservation practices on his farm.

Practices include; as heavy use area protection, manure storage facility, irrigation water management, use exclusion, alternative water source, nutrient management, watering ramp, and riparian buffers. He has established a chemical storage facility and community nutrient management facility. Hogan has practiced conservation for years and is planning to do more conservation projects in the near future. "I try to do practices that are important to me and I hope are important to soil, water and conservation. It's something I've been doing for a number of years," he said.

His future plans include completion of Irrigation Pond, installing more use exclusion for protection of wetlands and streams, constructing three additional heavy use areas and replacing the old existing inefficient irrigation pivot system.

“When it comes to conservation, Hogan is an excellent conservationist. He tries to practice conservation on every acre of his farm, “ said Britt Parker, district conservationist, for the NRCS. Hogan said that he has benefited from the application of the conservation treatments with “less erosion, improved wildlife habitat, higher crop yields and less water used.”

Some of the other programs used on the Hogan Farm are the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Forestland Enhancement Program (FLEP), Forest Stewardship Program (FSP,) and the Southern Pine Beetle Initiative (SPB).

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