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Released: February 18, 2005 Ludlums Chosen as Master Farmer, Master Farm Homemaker MANHATTAN, Kan. – A Bourbon County couple – Joe and Ann Ludlum – have been selected as members of the 2004 class of Master Farmers and Master Farm Homemakers. The award program honors agricultural leadership, environmental stewardship and community service and is sponsored by Kansas State University Research and Extension and the Kansas Farmer Magazine. The Ludlums are one of six couples in the state receiving the award and being honored at a banquet March 11 at the Manhattan Holiday Inn. The couple met at the Hiattville United Methodist Church, and they believe that faith is integral in their daily lives. Each grew up on a small farm in southeastern Kansas. Joe earned a degree in ag education from K-State in 1969 and taught vocational agriculture for six years in the early 1970s and then substitute taught for 11 years while the couple was building their farming operation. Teaching vocational agriculture allowed him to share his passion for agriculture and environmental stewardship – caring for the land – with a new generation of young farmers and agri-business professionals, he said. Ann earned a degree in home economics education from Pittsburg State University in 1970. She worked as a home economist for Kansas Gas and Electric for seven years before starting a family. She then worked as a substitute teacher and part-time church secretary while raising the couple’s two daughters – Kelli and Beth – before accepting a position as the K-State Research and Extension family and consumer sciences agent in Allen County in 1996 and in Bourbon County in 2000. The couple’s farm, which is located near Uniontown, is a study in land management and environmental leadership. The Ludlums currently farm 1,870 acres, a combination of land they own and rent. They plant 290 acres to soybeans, 220 acres to grass hay, 120 acres to corn, 90 acres to wheat and 40 acres to clover hay. All are non-irrigated. The couple began their cow-calf operation in 1970 with a 50 percent interest in 25 cows. Six years later they purchased the remaining interest in the cattle. They added 20 head in 1977 and another 20 head in 1985. In 2004, they added 45 head to their herd, which now includes 110 cows and 95 calves/stockers or feeders. In 1999, to supplement their income, the Ludlums initiated lease hunting for turkey and deer in the wooded areas on their farm that otherwise produce little, if any, income, said Joe, who has planted a three-acre field in the heavily wooded area to provide food for wildlife. “Farming is a responsibility,” he said. “We believe that we do not own the land, but that it is entrusted to us to care for it for a period of time and that we should leave it as productive as we found it.” The Ludlums practice conservation and have received a Kansas Bankers Award for Soil Conservation in 1987, Grassland Award from the Bourbon County Conservation District in 2002, and Kansas Farm Bureau Natural Resources County Award in 2003. Joe also has served on the Marmaton Valley Watershed Steering Committee and District Board for six years to help reduce flood damage in the river basin and stabilize the water supply. The Ludlums’ cropland is terraced so that water will flow to grass waterways, and they farm on the contour, with reduced tillage to help the thin, sloping soils in southeast Kansas remain productive, Joe said. The couple is enrolled in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and they follow K-State’s recommendations on applying fertilizer and lime to prevent soil erosion and run-off. Crop rotation is important to the Ludlum’s planned stewardship. “No one crop is ever grown in the same field more than two consecutive years. Following this plan offers optimum yields and enhances pest management,” said Joe, who also uses rotational grazing to enhance animal performance and improve pasture conditions. He chooses to grow short-season corn to reduce any necessary weed controls and to increase flexibility in planting milo and soybeans. The Ludlums are long-time Extension supporters and believe strongly in the land-grant mission to bring education to the people who can put it to work. Both Joe and Ann have been active members of the Bourbon County Extension Council and Executive Board. Joe has served on the advisory committee for the Southeast Kansas Ag Experiment Station, and their farm has served as a site for demonstration research plots. “Before making farm management decisions, I usually check with our agriculture and natural resources Extension agent, currently Delta George, and with specialists such as Gary Kilgore, Extension’s southeast area crops and soils specialist,” Joe said. He also checks key financial decisions with Bob Dawson, Extension agricultural economist with the Farm Management Association. While Joe has worked both as a full-time vocational agriculture teacher and a substitute teacher, he is constant in his support of ag education, FFA and 4-H programs. In an effort to showcase agriculture, he also has served several years on the Bourbon County Fair Board. Ann’s involvement with Extension programs, including serving as a 4-H leader, predates her employment as a K-State Research and Extension agent. The gap between her teaching experience and role as an agent reflects time she focused on family and daughters Kelli and Beth. Daughter Kelli earned a degree in animal science and industry from K-State in 1999. She has worked in legislative offices and currently is working in Washington, D.C., for the American Farm Bureau Federation, tracking livestock legislation. Daughter Beth, who earned a degree in ag communications from K-State in 2003, has recently accepted a position with the Points of Light Foundation, also in Washington, D.C. “Having the girls so far away is a change for our family. We are proud of their accomplishments and also that each is choosing a career of service. A sense of community and service are part of rural life, and we are happy to have instilled those values in our daughters,” Ann said. As a Master Farmer and Master Farm Homemaker, the Ludlums will join agricultural leaders and innovators previously honored by the agricultural award program that began in 1927. Friends of the Ludlums who would like to attend the banquet honoring them may make reservations by calling 785-532-5820. The cost per person is $20 and deadline for reservations is Feb. 25. -30- K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan. Story by: |