Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY — The March Rowan County Chamber of Commerce’s Power in Partnership breakfast was a special occasion, serving as an opportunity to salute agri-business and to recognize this year’s Soil and Water Conservation Farm Family of the Year.

Chris Sloop, director of the Rowan Soil and Water Conservation District, was called to the front to make the announcement. He first shared information about the farm and then called the family to the front to accept the award. The recipient of this year’s award is the Hammill family’s farm, which is located in the Gold Hill community, and Edwin and Mark Hammill were on hand to accept the award.

Prior to the announcement, Sloop took the opportunity to welcome everyone and thanked the county leaders for the beautiful facility, which he said, “offers a wealth of opportunities for growth and recognition” for the county.

Asking the crowd what makes Rowan County a great place, he said, you would probably get 100 different answers if you asked 100 different people.

Noting that Rowan is made up of different communities, he said that for him the “one that I hold dearest to my heart is the agriculture community and the folks that I’m surrounded by in the room this morning.”

The annual award that honors a conservation farm family is selected by Rowan County Soil and Water District supervisors, said Sloop.

He continued by sharing what the award is about, noting that it “recognizes farmers and farm families who are taking the initiative to implement sound, innovative and cost-effective conservation techniques and are actively involved in the conservation and education.”

Sloop added that “sound stewardship of Rowan County Soil and Water is the mission of our district, and we think that it is important to recognize and praise our farm families that are doing things right.” 

Before he called the Hammills to come and accept the award, he provided some details about the farm as he said they own 475 acres with eight broiler houses on it and each having approximately 20,000 birds.

On the 475 acres that they own, they also have crops on roughly half of it and the other is a forested area.

The Hammills, he said, also rent more than 1,000 acres and rotate crops of corn, wheat and soybeans and also grow approximately 75 acres of hay.

Sloop shared a number of the practices on the farm, which includes that all of their acres are a no-till farm, there is a litter shed to house the poultry waste, which is governed by a certified waste management plan, grass waterways assisting water management and erosion control into all the no-till fields. 

Additional facts about the farm included that they use all of the poultry litter to grow their crops, which is also according to the waste management plan and all pesticides are applied using GPS to insure proper application rates and reduce waste, over application and runoff. 

Poultry, crops, deer corn sale and hay are a part of this farm’s diversified operation, he noted.

Following his comments, Sloop said, “it’s our honor as the Rowan Soil and Water Conservation District to present the Hammill family with the 2025 Conservation Farm Family of the Year Award,” after which he asked Edwin and Mark to please come forward, which brought lots of applause from the crowd.

Bruce Miller, chairman of the Soil and Water Conservation District’s board, also came to the front to make the official presentation of the award to them.

A four-generation family farm, Edwin, 80, and Mark, who said he is 51 and that fourth generation, have been farming all their lives. A slide of the family as the award was being presented also included Edwin’s wife Carolyn Hammill who, as noted in a previous article about the couple, has been involved in the family business as well. 

Edwin expressed his thanks for being selected and said, “it’s an honor, appreciate it.”

Mark echoed that sentiment as he said, “it’s an honor to be recognized for things you do.”

The selection was a surprise to the family as Mark added, “I was surprised. We didn’t have any idea. We were shocked.”

In speaking of the farm and the work that they do, Mark shared that they try “to do the same thing all the time. We’re just trying to do a good job, take care of the land while we still can here in Rowan County.”