The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking for farmers who want to increase farm productivity while enhancing environmental stewardship. It's a win-win situation.

People who earn a living from the land and people who think they know how to best manage land often find themselves at loggerheads. Farmers sometimes feel state and federal agencies are more interested in preserving meadowlarks and pallid sturgeons than helping farm families earn a livelihood. Professional conservationists off the farm at times act as if farmers don't care about anything that doesn't earn another dollar. It's an old conflict--in many cases--brought on by failure to communicate.

"Enhanced farm productivity and the conservation of natural resources doesn't need to be an either/or situation," said Bob Miller, agriculture liaison with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). "Many Missouri farmers are implementing management practices that make their operations more efficient and more profitable, and at the same time, are taking better care of natural resources such as wildlife and stream quality."

Miller points out that nearly 93 percent of Missouri's 44-million-plus acres is held by private landowners.

"That means the fate of our state's natural resources is mostly in private hands," said Miller. "And we are working more closely with landowners to help them make the most of their land in terms of both productivity and the conservation of resources. Whatever the reasons people own the land--whatever their goals--these landowners are the stewards of most of Missouri's natural resources."

Recognition of this fact prompted MDC in 1999 to organize the Division of Private Land Services. The division has a $3.3 million annual budget and an 82-person staff. A major goal is to help landowners increase farm productivity while protecting natural resources.

"We're doing a lot of wildlife-friendly things--that's still our main mandate," said Bob Schroeppel, supervisor of MDC's Private Land Services in 14 southwest Missouri counties. "But we want to help landowners accomplish their goals and at the same time, further our objectives of preserving and protecting natural resources. If we are to make an important impact on resource conservation, it will have to include private lands."

The MDC division is manned by hand-picked specialists, called private land conservationists. Some were selected from other MDC divisions; many were hired from universities, other agencies and private industry.

"We include a variety of disciplines, but we are general practitioners in this job," Schroeppel added. "Basically, we work one-on-one with landowners and coordinate what we do closely with other agencies with similar goals--especially NRCS and local soil and water conservation districts. We have a small cost-share budget, but mostly what we provide is technical assistance.

"And, frankly, we're having a tough time keeping up with requests for assistance," he added. "In this area, we're working mainly with landowners on grassland management because grass and livestock are mostly what we have here. This approach is new enough that we are still learning, too."

On the prairies of Polk County, Alice Roberts-Dickover and her husband, Junior Dickover, have drawn on the expertise of private land conservationists. Eight years ago, Alice took over management of the Bill and Lee Roberts Ranch, a grass-and-beef operation, with a 240-acre pasture.

"At that time, the 240 acres carried 70 cow-calf pairs," she recalled. "Our first goal was to produce more income, which meant running more cows. We wanted to make more intensive use of the grass, so in the fall of 1997, we went to work at installing a modified cell-grazing system. We developed watering systems and used high-tensile electric fence to sub-divide the 240 acres into 20 grazing paddocks."

Being in the Brush Creek watershed qualified the ranch for technical and financial help under the Brush Creek EARTH project, administered by the Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District. MDC's Private Lands Services helped them fence off Rule Creek, a tributary of Brush Creek.

"The SWCD cost-shared on fencing and water development," said Roberts-Dickover. "We also brought the soil to test and overseeded legumes in the pasture. We rotate the cattle to new grass every two to four days, depending on how fast the grass is growing."

Today, those same 240 acres support 120 cows and their calves. In 1999, Roberts-Dickover was named Missouri's Grassland Farmer of the Year.

The couple check off other benefits with their new management system:

"Quality of the forage has improved dramatically with this system. We're weaning calves that are 50 to 100 pounds heavier now. We've trimmed at least three months off the hay-feeding season. Our cows graze from mid-April through most of January.

"Before, we fought weeds and woody sprouts in the pasture. With cows confined to 20-acre paddocks, they keep the weeds down.

"We've developed a variety of livestock watering systems, including nearly 4,500 feet of underground pipeline, freeze-proof water tanks, spring development and pond renovations. When you're going to an intensive grazing system, you need to start with the water.

"Cattle are much easier to handle. For one thing, they are accustomed to being moved to new grass every few days. For another, with intensive grazing, cows are in smaller areas. Before, when the herd ran on the entire 240 acres, it took eight or nine people to gather cattle. Now, we do it with two or three, in less time, with a lot less hassle.

"We're doing a prairie restoration on about 150 acres with native prairie grasses. Big bluestem, eastern gamagrass and other warm-season perennials have returned there, which provides graze in midsummer after fescue goes dormant. A great variety of birds are moving into this area, too.

"There's more benefit than we expected by keeping cows out of the creek. When the cattle were watering out of the creek, they spent a lot of time loafing in the water. Much of their urine and manure was deposited in the creek rather than being returned to pasture soils. It wasn't good for either the stream or the cattle."

With cattle no longer in the stream banks, erosion has almost halted there. "The vegetation that has re-grown in that corridor along the creek supports more wildlife, especially turkey and quail," said Roberts-Dickover.

Roberts Ranch is now installing intensive grazing on more pastureland.

"By the end of 2002, we want to have 2,300 acres in intensive grazing," said Roberts-Dickover. "Eventually, we plan to have about 3,000 acres of intensively managed grass and run 1,200 to 1,500 cow-calf pairs on it. We're about halfway there now.

"Intensive grazing may not be for every cattle producer," she added. "You have to make up your mind to want to manage it. We've been fortunate in that we had excellent help from the Polk County SWCD, the MDC Private Lands people and other agencies. There's a lot of help available to landowners who take the time to check it out."

"That's what we're here for," said Bob Schroeppel. "We take into account a landowner's goals and do what we can to help the landowner accomplish those goals."

And MDC's private lands conservationists will further the division's objectives of preserving and protecting natural resources. After all, private landowners are not only the managers of a productive food and fiber factory, they are stewards of Missouri's forests, fish, wildlife and native plants.