For the second year, DCA will recognize a chicken grower who goes above and beyond to make his or her farm environmentally responsible and compatible with neighboring properties with the George ‘Bud’ Malone Environmental Award. This award shines a spotlight on Delmarva chicken growers who integrate vegetative environmental buffers and other conservation measures, ensuring their farms are sustainable and are good neighbors. The winner of the award also receives a $500 prize from DCA. Anyone can nominate a farm for the award by acting before June 23.
The award is named for Bud Malone, who had the foresight to begin DCA’s nationally recognized vegetative environmental buffers program, and who remains involved in DCA and Delmarva’s chicken community. This program has resulted in the planting of thousands of trees, shrubs and grasses on family-owned poultry farms on Delmarva and led to improved relations between farm owners and neighboring property owners. In 2022, the Malone Award was presented to John and Linda Brown, who own L & J Farm in Harrington, Del.
Applications will be accepted from a grower, his or her family, friends, flock supervisors or state or federal agencies. To be nominated, a grower must be a 2023 DCA member at the $150 level or above.
- Practices to be considered include:
- Heavy use pads, well-maintained and well-kept
- Vegetative environmental buffers around chicken houses; at property lines; and around ponds and manure sheds
- Pollinator-friendly vegetative buffer plots
- Overall cleanliness
- Grass buffers near tunnel fans to contain dust, feathers, and odor
- Solar energy on the farm
- Mortality freezers or other excellent mortality composting practices
- Commendable appearance and maintenance of manure storage structures
- Well-maintained farm roads
- Weed control around chicken houses
- Proper drainage, including stormwater ponds
- Other adaptations or practices the grower has made to benefit neighbor relations
To apply for the George ‘Bud’ Malone Environmental Award, find a form at dcachicken.com/veb and send it to DCA’s communications manager, James Fisher, by June 23, 2023. DCA staff may contact the owners of nominated farms to schedule a visit and identify and verify the practices listed on the application. Applications will be submitted to the Grower Committee Chairperson for review. The Grower Committee will make the final determination of the winner at its September meeting.
DCA will recognize the award recipient at a grower event in October with a plaque, a news release promoting the grower’s accomplishments, and may nominate the recipient for US POULTRY’s Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award.
