Tennessee cotton grower Bob Walker was named Farmer of the Year at Field to Market’s 2024 Sustainable Leadership Awards for his outstanding conservation efforts and leadership in advancing sustainable agriculture. Bob co-owns and operates Walker Farms in Yum Yum, Tennessee, with his brother. They raise cattle and grow cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay, primarily on land that has been in their family since the 1830s.
Bob uses a range of climate-smart practices, many of which he has implemented for almost 30 years. These include no-till cultivation, cover crops, integrated pest management, variable rate fertility applications, and variable rate seeding.
“I want my kids and my grandkids to have an opportunity to have land that is better than what I inherited and came into it with,” says Bob.
Water conservation and soil health
Water conservation is a top priority. Due to his farm’s location on highly erodible land in the Mississippi watershed, Bob uses practices that slow down the velocity of any water that hits his farm, reducing erosion and runoff.
“Everything we’ve got goes to the Mississippi River,” explains Walker. “I don’t want to put any of the nutrients that I’m paying for, that I need for my crops to grow and to be sustainable here on the farm, to wind up in New Orleans.”
Bob places a strong emphasis on soil health. Thanks to his variable rate application practices, he can adapt to the constant changes across a field, ensuring his soil is at its best.
“When you start to get the soil happy, it’s alive – it isn’t dirt anymore, it’s a living creature that we deal with,” Walker says.
“If we let the nutrients and the microbes and the earthworms all just do their thing, they’re going to provide spots for the water to go. They’re going to help break up the soil and increase nutrients.”
The other winners in Field to Market’s Sustainability Leadership Awards, selected by the Alliance’s Education and Outreach Committee, are:
- Christine Bielski, Northern High Plains Division Manager for Research and Sustainability, Nutrien Ag Solutions, named 2024 Trusted Adviser of the Year
- The Peninsula Pride Farms Project, the 2024 Collaboration of the Year. This award recognizes the combined efforts of Field to Market members Farmers for Sustainable Food and Houston Engineering, Inc., along with Peninsula Pride Farms.