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Mar 01, 2025
The American Soybean Association congratulates this year’s regional winners of the 2025 Conservation Legacy Award:
The award winners will be recognized at the annual ASA Awards Celebration during Commodity Classic on March 1, 2025. During the event, one of the regional winners will be announced as the national winner.
The Conservation Legacy Award is a national program designed to recognize the outstanding environmental achievements of soybean farmers, which help produce more sustainable U.S. soybeans.
A national selection committee, composed of soybean farmers, conservationists, agronomists and natural resource professionals, evaluated nominees based on their on-farm environmental and economic plans and contributions to the conservation community. The program is sponsored by ASA, BASF, Bayer, Nutrien, the United Soybean Board/Soy Checkoff and Valent USA.
Benjamin Ellis & Shannon Tignor Ellis, Champlain (South Region)
Building upon the stewardship of forefathers who were ahead of their time, Benjamin and Shannon Ellis have crafted a conservation legacy amid farming in the environmentally sensitive and highly regulated Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Operating as Thomas Neck Agricultural Enterprises, the Ellis operation in Champlain, Virginia, is a culmination of two multi-generational family farms. Shannon represents the 10th farming generation in her family. Their operation is designated a Virginia Century Farm, a program recognizing farms that have been in operation for at least 100 consecutive years. Production on her family’s operation includes soybeans, corn, wheat and beef cattle. The couple’s son, Tripp, works alongside Shannon and helps manage the commercial cow-calf operation. Benjamin’s family farm has been in operation since 1683 and includes soybeans, corn and wheat production.
Prioritizing conservation is nothing new to Shannon’s family. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, her father began using minimum and mostly no-till practices in the farm’s management plan.
“Our farming venture spans four counties,” Shannon says. “We believe in taking care of the land that has provided for both of our families for generations.”
Goals for the farm couple’s operation include improved soil health and structure while reducing soil runoff and erosion. The Ellises also work to reduce operation expenses by optimizing the use of protectants and fertilizers, minimizing weed pressure and improving water quality and infiltration. They are passionate about maintaining wildlife and pollinator habitats and work to improve yield and profitability while stepping up the overall environmental and economic resilience of their family farm.
“We strive to create a legacy that includes continually researching and implementing the most effective conservation practices for our farming operation,” Shannon says. Read more.
Jim O’Connell, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Midwest Region)
Jim O’Connell’s conservation story began on his family farm outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa. With more than three decades of experience under his belt, the farmer grows food-grade waxy corn, soybeans and hay and manages a small cow herd.
O’Connell’s mission is to positively impact other people’s lives through land stewardship. His father was one of the first in their area to adopt no-till, and though he passed away two decades ago, O’Connell strives to carry on his innovative legacy.
“We look at the farm the same way,” O’Connell says. “Our farm is a valuable gift that we hope to pass on for generations. We need to work on protecting that.”
Through many challenges, including a derecho storm in August 2020 that left his corn crop a total loss, O’Connell has continued to ensure his operation makes a positive impact in his community and remains committed to conservation. Notably, he works with the City of Cedar Rapids to ensure the water coming off their farm is clean and high quality for those who might be using it downstream.
When O’Connell talks about conservation and how stewardship practices can make a difference in soil preservation and water quality, he steps on his “soapbox.” He says he cares deeply about conservation, making a difference and leaving the land in better shape than before.
O’Connell says the best way to get others to take notice is simply being a committed caretaker. His lead-by-example approach naturally showcases the stewardship practices he implements on his farm. Farmers are often more open to adopting new practices and management styles if they can see their success firsthand. Read more.
Kurt Stiefvater, Salem, South Dakota (Upper Midwest Region)
Kurt Stiefvater began his conservation efforts while farming alongside his parents and siblings. Today, he cares for that same land with his wife and daughters. In addition to corn and soybeans, the Stiefvaters grow oats, grain sorghum, winter wheat, alfalfa and cover crops while managing a cattle operation.
In the late 1990s, the South Dakota farmer was ready to give up on the transition to no-till. He’d been no-tilling crops for a decade but admits he didn’t fully understand how it worked.
Rather than give up, the fourth-generation grower instead pressed on. Through analyzing the impact of every activity on his farm, he can now closely monitor the soil, air and livestock under his care and has generated a positive economic return to his operation by doing so. His long-term vision to improve the soil truly leaves its mark as the core asset of his stewardship legacy.
“The bottom line is making [the land] better for the next generation,” he says simply. “Going forward, it’s about improving the soil and by growing that biology, keeping it protected and making it a resilient soil for the future.”
A staunch believer in conservation, Stiefvater is also mentor and advocate for soil health across his home state. Whether he’s speaking at South Dakota State University to agronomy and farm business classes about farm production practices or hosting soil health schools, his stewardship journey is an open book. Read more.
Aaron Thompson, Hartly, Delaware, (Northeast Region)
Aaron Thompson’s conservation story began in 1996 when confronted with a huge challenge for his Delaware farm. He knew regulations would soon impact him and other farmers in the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay regions of the Northeastern United States due to a sizable Pfiesteria outbreak that caused a large fish kill.
Thompson, a fourth-generation farmer, knew he would need to make changes in how he’d grown accustomed to doing business. He implemented a nutrient management plan as a result of the new regulations. Despite Thompson’s initial concerns, this new way of farming brought many opportunities.
“At the time, it was a huge challenge trying to adjust to all of the demands [of a nutrient management plan], going through schooling and training to get certified,” Thompson says. “It’s created better farmers for those of us operating under those conditions. It’s made us learn our soil, understand what we’re doing and why.”
Adopting stewardship practices like conservation tillage and planting cover crops has helped him re-establish the foundation of his farm business, making it more sustainable for the future.
Thompson farms the land his great-grandfather settled in 1909. The property has seen its share of diversity over the generations. What began with tomatoes, wheat, dairy cattle, laying hens and row crops has grown into today’s Thompson Farm, LLC, currently home to corn, soybeans, wheat and organic broiler chickens. The partnership includes Thompson, his parents and brother.
“We farm to increase the basics of air, water and carbon through cover crops and vertical tillage,” Thompson says. “Every trip we make across the field has a purpose, as we aim to purchase the correct nutrient sources, in the correct amount, at the correct time.” Read more.
