The N.C. Cattlemen's Association has announced that Bernie and Cheryl Pryor of Caswell County, N.C., recently won the 2011 North Carolina Environmental Stewardship Award. The honor was given for their work on a farm that has been family operated for over 85 years. They currently run a 75 head cow-calf herd on the farm and grow crops for supplemental feeds.
The award is sponsored by the North Carolina Cattlemen's Association, the N.C. Forage and Grassland Council, Intervet Schering-Plough Animal Health to recognize conservation-minded and innovative cattle men and women.
Bernie and Cheryl are actively committed to the cattle industry with one or both of them regularly participating in the Caswell County Cattlemen's Association, N.C. Farm Bureau, Southern States Board of Directors and the Piedmont Local Foods Cooperative
The Pryors are enthusiastic protectors of the environment. They are concerned with water conservation, for example, which goes hand in hand with their desire to produce quality drinking water for their cattle. They fence livestock from ponds and streams and have installed riparian buffers by fencing out wooded areas. They strip graze their cattle with stockpiled fescue.
They also network with public and private entities like the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, North Carolina Cattlemen's Association, State-Wide Food Cooperatives and others.
Learn more about the Pryor's award as well as about other initiatives of the N.C. Cattlemen's Association by visiting http://www.nccattle.com/.