Joyce Berger Doyle & Brad Doyle

With their crop consulting and plant breeding backgrounds, Brad and Joyce Doyle are continuing a family conservation legacy by using innovative solutions on their Arkansas farm. The Doyles have challenged the status quo for 30 years to make impressive strides, and that’s cause for celebration among the farm family’s fellow growers and conservationists.

The American Soybean Association presented the Doyles with the 2024 National Conservation Legacy Award during the annual ASA Awards Celebration event at Commodity Classic in Houston.

Together with Joyce’s brother, the Doyles farm soybeans, rice and wheat in the Mississippi River Delta. The family continues building upon the Berger family’s efforts, which began with water management and reservoir construction started by Joyce's father and grandfather.

“Not only do these reservoirs provide us with irrigation water, but also habitat for waterfowl,” Brad Doyle says. Bald eagles, fish and other wildlife also frequent the area.

The Doyles face a unique set of challenges as an irrigated operation with clayey, hardpan soils, but they have made strides by adopting no-till and implementing cover crops. Through research, Brad Doyle identified the cover crops that would be best suited for the area’s heavy, water-logging soil. About 25% of the farm is planted in cover crops using aerial application and drill seeding techniques. Cover crops are focused on waterways, field edges, roads and highly erodible, sloped fields.

“As we have learned, it is possible to improve the soil, attract more animals, save water and watch the yields climb,” Doyle points out. “We want to make it easy for the next generation to be profitable and happy.”

The Conservation Legacy Award is a national program designed to recognize the outstanding environmental and conservation achievements of soybean farmers, which in turn help produce more sustainable U.S. soybeans. The program is sponsored by ASA, BASF, Bayer, Nutrien, the United Soybean Board/Soy Checkoff and Valent USA.

The following individuals received regional Conservation Legacy Awards during ASA’s awards program. Click below to read more on each of the regional winners’ operations:

• Brad and Joyce Doyle, Weiner, Arkansas (Southern Region)

• Jacob Kaderly, Monticello, Wisconsin (Upper Midwest Region)

• Donald Morse, Birch Run, Michigan (Northeast Region)

• Chris Von Holten, Walnut, Illinois (Midwest Region)

A national selection committee, composed of soybean farmers, conservationists, agronomists and natural resource professionals, evaluated nominations based on each farmer’s environmental and economic programs. The achievements of these farmers serve as a positive example for other farmers and help produce a more sustainable U.S. soybean crop.