LEWISTON – Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water Conservation District board of supervisors annually recognizes a Cooperator of the Year for a preserving commitment to using conservation practices that protect natural resources and enhance the environment.

At a meeting held at the USDA Service Center recently, Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Conservation Technician Paul Carmichael described the farm activities of the 2008 Cooperator of the Year.

Carmichael said, “Iris Pulkkinen owns and operates a small conventional dairy farm in Minot, Maine. She milks 25 to 30 Holstein dairy cows, and raises her own replacement animals. She also grows and manages 40 acres of silage corn and 100 acres of hay to feed her animals. Her son uses four acres of land to grow sweet corn and pumpkins for retail at area farm stands.”

He said Pulkkinen has worked with NRCS to develop and maintain a conservation plan that addresses her farmland stewardship goals. Maintaining and updating her comprehensive nutrient management plan is a major component of her conservation plan. A rotational grazing plan is another component, he said.

Working with NRCS and under the umbrella provided by the environmental quality incentive program, Pulkkinen, over the past few years, has installed and is maintaining several conservation practices.

The practices include building a waste storage facility, a diversion to control water flows and stop erosion, animal trails and walkways, a stream crossing for her animals, a watering facility, which included rehabilitating a dug well, and installing a gravity feed hydrant with trough float and gravel pad and fencing.

Pulkkinen’s rotational grazing plan utilizes permanent pasture areas as well as grazed hay lands for late season forage and reduces the need for importing feed for her dairy herd. She also improves her pasture forage by clipping her pastures after August to control unwanted and noxious vegetation.”