FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual Barnyard Bash Friday evening at Maasdam Barns in Fairfield.

The perfect weather attracted a huge crowd that filled the parking lot of the neighboring Jefferson County Health Center. Visitors who parked at the health center were treated to a hayride into the grounds, where they were greeted by tractors, horse-drawn carriages, agricultural booths and live demonstrations, kids games and food courtesy of the Jefferson County Pork Producers and Jefferson County Cattlemen.

One of the highlights of the evening was Jefferson County Farm Bureau and Soil & Water Conservation District naming their Conservation Farmer of the Year. This year’s honoree was Elmore Family Farms, represented that evening by Josh and Kendra Hellweg with their three children Konrad, Grace and Hope.

Ray Woody introduced the Hellwegs on stage to accept the award. He spoke about how, in the past four or five years, the family has built four ponds, installed almost 1,900 feet of terraces, built three to four low-water crossings, and seeded and reseeded a number of crop acres to pasture or hay.

“As you know, all of these practices greatly reduce soil erosion and impact the water quality on these farms,” Woody said.

The Hellwegs put cover crops on all their rowcrop acres. They use cereal rye, which they bale or chop for cattle feed. They practice no-till on about half their rowcrop acres, and don’t use it on all their acres because they apply hog and cattle manure to some of them. The family has a cow herd of more than 300 cows, and they manage three hog finishing buildings.

Kendra said the farm has been in the Elmore family since about 1904. She said she is building a manure storage holding area where the family will stockpile cattle manure until it can be applied to pasture or cropland. She designed it using large concrete blocks for the sides and hog slatted flooring for the base.

“They are so deserving of this conservation award,” Woody said. “Are they done yet? Heavens no. They have plans to do much more, always with the goal of protecting the land and water for future generations.”