Stewardship

The “Longleaf” that Makes Longleaf Ridge

Longleaf Ridge is named for the beautiful longleaf pine ecosystem naturally occurring across the farm. Once spread across 90 million acres of the coastal plain, only about 4 million acres of the longleaf pine - wiregrass ecosystem remain in the United States today. Glenn and Casey are committed to the stewardship of this immensely biodiverse landscape. Their love for the majestic longleaf pines is where the farm derives its name.

Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you.

Our Commitment to Stewardship

“Sustainable” “Regenerative” “Natural” -- Chances are, you’ve heard some of these buzzwords to describe farms, forests, and food products. We also know words like these might have different definitions for different people, which is why we like to describe the core value of our farm as stewardship. The definition of stewardship is quite literally “taking care of something, especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” Managing our farm, our land, our natural resources, and our crops carefully and responsibly is our top priority.

We strive to find the right balance between sustaining our livelihood and conserving the natural resources that are critical to both our farm and its surrounding ecosystem. Conservation is the connecting link between our heritage and our future -- the reason we have a farm today and the motivation to sustain our farm for generations to come. We also know there is always room to grow and improve, and we remain open-minded to new practices, technologies, and methods that support our business and our most important business partner, Mother Nature.

Below, we share some of our proactive stewardship efforts on the farm.

Technology

We utilize a wide range of technologies to increase our efficiencies on the farm, especially related to smart irrigation.

Conservation Tillage

Whenever possible, we utilize conservation tillage in our farm operations. We plant cover crops during the off-season to maintain soil health, and then we plant our spring crop into the residue of the cover crops. This is a proven method to reduce soil erosion.

Soil Moisture Sensors

We utilize soil moisture sensors in our crops to access real-time data in our fields, enabling us to make more informed irrigation decisions.

Variable Rate Irrigation

Our fields and soils are highly variable - and we even have some non-cropped areas of the field that are under our irrigation system’s coverage. Variable rate irrigation (VRI) utilizes GPS to turn off sprinklers over some of those non-cropped areas so we are only irrigating what needs water.

GPS Systems

We have GPS systems on our tractors to ensure that we are maximizing our efficiency during both the planting and harvesting process.

Crop Rotation

We rotate our crops across the farm, a simple but effective conservation practice. Peanuts are an excellent rotation crop as they are legumes, and the residual nitrogen left in the soil reduces the amount of fertilizer we apply to the subsequent crop.

Cover Crops

We plant cover crops during the winter as often as possible to enhance the soil health of our fields. We plant oats, wheat, or rye.

Riparian Buffers

We are so fortunate that the majority of our farm land borders the beautiful Flint River. We work hard to maintain a solid riparian buffer between all of our agricultural fields and operations and the river.

Wildlife Habitat

We manage our land for a variety of purposes, including optimal wildlife habitat. We have quite a diversity of wildlife on the farm, including gopher tortoises (a keystone species), deer, bobwhite quail, wild turkeys, and more.

Pollinator Habitat

We have several native species of plants and flowers that pollinators love, and we are actively looking for ways to increase pollinator habitat across the farm.

Longleaf Restoration

We are in the process of restoring a significant amount of our timberland to a natural longleaf pine system and have planted hundreds of longleaf pine seedlings in recent years.

Prescribed Fire

Prescribed burning is a critical part of our forest management system, especially in our longleaf pines. This enables the biodiverse ecosystem to thrive, restores natural ecosystems, and reduces wildfire risk.

Ecological Forestry

We manage some of our timber with an ecological forestry focus - this means we manage for the long-term health of the overall ecosystem rather than for economic prospects. Longleaf pine can live up to 400 years, and we hope ours will still be here for many more generations!