Families that had land taken for federal reservoir get to keep farming it through generations.

From the Hillsboro Free Press Federally-owned cropland at Marion Reservoir contributes to a farming tradition for families like that of Warren Winter of Hillsboro,Kansas. Todd Pesch, area manager for the agricultural lands at both the reservoir and in the McPherson Wetlands for Kansas Wildlife and Parks, said that “sons of guys who were farming these lands before the Reservoir went in in the 1960s get first dibs at keeping the land. “Now we are getting their sons, the grandsons of the first guys, farming some of the same land.” Pesch said it is possible for families to retire from the land, opening it up to cash bids from new persons, or for KWP to plant crops for food plots, but every effort is made to keep it with the same families. The farming is on shares with 70 percent going to the farmer and 30 percent going to KWP. Pesch said KWP may take its share of a feed grain-like milo remaining standing in the field, for wildlife after the farmer has taken his share. Or, he said, a cash crop like wheat or soybeans is all hauled to the grain elevator with KWP going in to pick up its check after harvest. Pesch said KWP makes no attempt to tell farmers what to plant or what tillage practices to use. “We figure the guys know these pieces of land better than we do,” he said. Shares on the McPherson Wetlands are done differently, going out to bid or on a 75-25 percent split because of the increased risk the farmer will take on being flooded out, he said. Winter, 58, said his family has a long history on the land, with records showing his grandfather, Jacob Winter, farmed some of the land along the reservoir more than 80 years ago. Winter took over from his father, Carl, in 1970, and when his uncle, Reinhold Winter, and father-in-law, Chester Unruh, no longer farmed, he was designated to take their plots. Now his own son, Kevin, 27, has joined him in the dairy-beef-crop operation headquartered along K-15 Highway between Hillsboro and Durham. With all that family history, it may seem like the reservoir land Winter farms must amount to quite a bit, but Winter said it is barely 80 acres and is cut into small plots by the bordering areas varying from nine or 10 acres to a high of 25. Although KWP doesn’t tell Winter how to farm, it does restrict him on herbicides he can use because it doesn’t allow high-residual rate chemicals like Atrazine used for milo. But it does allow short-term treatments with products like Roundup, the weed-contact killer that becomes inert when it hits the ground, used mostly for genetically engineered Roundup-resistant crops such as soybeans. Consequently, Winter doesn’t care to leave a grain crop of milo share for KWP in the field with unwanted volunteer plants, but goes to a rotation that pays KWP share with cash from the elevator. He said: “I rotate a third wheat, a third corn and a third beans. The corn goes all to silage, and they trade their share of silage for more share on a cash crop like soybeans. They’re pretty cooperative on working things out.” Winter said the silage works well for him because he has a dairy herd of 130 Holstein cows and a Simmental beef herd of more than 150 cows to feed. KWP likes the silage because it enables him to rotate to fall wheat, which is a beneficial winter cover crop to help feed wildlife. Winter said he has seen quite a few fish and game managers come and go in his time on the reservoir lands, but he has managed to remain content with all of them. He said: “This is some of the best land there is, especially when it’s dry. There’s a little flooding when it’s a wet season, but it’s dry here a lot more of the time.” Winter said the low-lying lands around the lake can stay productive in dry times because of the higher water table. If you’re thinking by now that KWP does a good job leasing the public land it owns to traditional farmers, you’re at least partly wrong. KWP doesn’t own the reservoir land. It is licensed to manage federally-owned land by the Corps of Engineers. Terry Holt, manager of Marion Reservoir for the Corps, said it is typical for the Corps to designate a public entity as the licensee to operate Corps land at every federal reservoir. In most cases, Holt said, the job is given to the fish and game service of the state in which each reservoir is located. But there are states where the the land managers are Indian reservations or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Holt said at Marion Reservoir the Corps only has two farm plots it leases independently of KWP by public bid for five-year leases, one at Hillsboro Cove, and the other a small acreage below the left side of the dam.