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South Region
Richard Jameson
Brownsville, TN
“Soil and water conservation are such obvious practices for us that performing them are not things we consciously think about, it’s something we just do,” says Richard Jameson from Brownsville, TN.
Jameson and his wife Jane continue to farm on the same land their ancestors homesteaded in the early 1800s. They grow 1,250 acres of soybeans, 850 acres of cotton and 250 of corn. Soybeans have been their primary row crop for 30 years, and they’ve been full-scale no-till on all their acres since the mid-1980s. They’re proud to say that some of the first contour terraces in west Tennessee were constructed on their farm.
“Richard practices what he preaches,” says Gary Chandler, Natural Resources Conservation Service. “About 1,500 acres of his crop land are considered highly erodible with soil losses that would exceed 20 tons/acre/year without conservation treatment.”
The Jamesons have established over 40 miles of gradient terraces, over 35 acres of grassed waterways and several grade stabilization structures.
More than 100 acres of their operation are currently in the Conservation Reserve Program. And recently, on a farm where trees and small bushes were cleared to accommodate a center-pivot irrigation system, Jameson installed wildlife buffer strips around the perimeter.
“This farm has always had an abundance of wildlife, like quail and rabbits,” Jameson explains. “To mitigate the loss of habitat we planted native warm-season grasses and we’ll also plant wildlife food plots.”
Jameson is especially concerned about safety standards on his west Tennessee operation and keeps a ready supply of particle respirators for employees working in dusty conditions, plus various types of gloves and eye protection.
“Richard is usually the first producer in the area to adopt new practices to sustain the soil and environment around his farm land,” says Tracey Sullivan, ag instructor at Dyersburg State Community College. “He’s passionate about being a good steward.”
