OKLAHOMA RANCH WINS ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP AWARD

DENVER, Colo. (August 3, 2000) - Ralph Morgan’s goal of protecting the soil and insuring the quality of water has not changed since he was a young boy helping his father with a 10-head dairy operation.

Morgan and his wife Evelyn now raise about 1,500 head per year on their pastures. The cattle ranch started as a dairy in 1942 when Morgan’s parents moved from California to what is now Chickasha, Okla. The original homestead was 90 acres. 

Morgan still applies the environmental standards set by his father decades ago. His sound environmental practices are the reason he was named today as the NCBA Region IV Environmental Stewardship Award winner, announced here at the annual Cattle Industry Summer Conference. Sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, the Environmental Stewardship Award is given annually to a cattle producer who conducts innovative practices while remaining profitable.

“This ranch continually does what it takes to enhance the soil and improve water quality,” said George Hall, NCBA president and a cattle producer from Mustang, Okla.

In the late 1950s, Morgan and his father built one of the first lagoons to be effectively used in Oklahoma. The lagoon was concrete and under ground. All the waste in the barn and holding pens was scraped into the lagoon. The collected waste was then applied to the fields.

Waste management continues to be a practice on the Morgan ranch. With assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Morgan’s present lagoon is designed to include the production, handling and distribution of waste from 1,000 head of 500 pound stocker calves that are in the feedlot for 151 days a year. It is also designed to store all the water that runs off the drainage area.

The Morgan’s milk cow operation continually expanded until 1971 when they sold the dairy and began the stocker business. The family still uses some of the dairy equipment. The old dairy barn is now a processing facility.

The ranch’s land is a rolling area that receives about 33 inches of rain each year. Because a considerable amount of water drains onto the land, the property has 24 ponds, most with retention dams. The damns prevent flooding, collect sediment and water the livestock.

The 984 acres have come a long way since the Morgan ranch first expanded 30 years ago. Most of the land was once cropland.

“The land was not as productive in cropland, so I converted it to pasture by sprigging Bermuda grass. It’s helped stabilize the land and protects the natural resources.”

Most of the fields are cross-fenced for rotational grazing, and excess grass is baled for winter.

Morgan regularly consults with resource agencies about good environmental stewardship practices. He actively participates on the Conservation District Board, and he successfully encouraged the board to accept the Dairy Lagoon Pump-Out Project offered by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission to assist area landowners with animal waste disposal.

Many improvements have been made on the farm under the Great Plains Conservation Program, which improved the productivity of the land and helped control erosion.

Some of the practices on the Morgan ranch include: pasture and hayland management to maintain the soil; rotational grazing and conservation tillage.

“You do not have to purchase more land to be profitable,” Morgan said. “It’s a matter of making what you have work better. Learn to use what you have, then you won’t need what you have not.”

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See this winner's informational factsheet and reproducible images.

Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the  trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.