News about Sullivans Farms

Forest Management and Wildlife Habitat Improvement
Work Completed
Last Web Update: 12/27/21

Assistance provided by:

Missouri Conservation Department
Saline County Soil & Water Conservation District ~ National Association of Conservation Districts
USDA, Farm Service Agency
USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Services: Joe Alley, NRCS Forester; Julie Asher, FSA Representative; Susan Troxel DeWitt, MDC Forester; Larry Fischer, NRCS Resource Conservationist; Brian D. McCarthy, Saline County Soil and Water Conservation District & NRCS; Wayne McReynolds, NRCS Resource Conservationist; Steven Noll, MDC Public Land Conservationist; Kim Schroeder, Saline County Soil and Water Conservation District & NRCS; Donna Smith, Conservation District Representative; Brent Vandeloecht, MDC Private Land Conservationist, co-author of Landowner Conservation, Missouri Conservationist, December 2005

April 15, 2004: WHIP application begins
April 26, 2004: Site visit ~ NRDC
May 13, 2004: WHIP application finalized
September 28, 2004: WHIP funding approved
February 4, 2005: Timber Stand Improvement begins
March 14, 2005: Timber Stand Improvement complete and approved.
September 8, 2005: Site visit ~ NRDC and MDC~ Jim's Images
September 9, 2005: Prescribed Burn Workshop, Fayette ~ NRDC/MDC
October 5, 2005: CCRP Application, Marshall
February 28, 2006: CCRP Contract, Marshall (3/01/2006 - 9/30/2016)
March 2006: Soil Testing
March 28, 2006: MDC -- Border Marking (Joe Alley)
April 2006: Grass Seed and Forbs Purchase Pure Air Native Seed Company
April 2006: Great Plains Seeder Rental, Marshall USDA offices
May 2006: Fescue sprayed in Borders
June 5, 2006: Grass Seed and Forbs Sown in Borders
December 2006: Meeting with Joe Alley, plan and map adjustments to come
Next Steps -- CCRP CP33 Border Maintenance per Missouri Exhibit #17
May 2007: Joe Alley's site visit, contract review
June 2007: Meeting with Joe Alley, Julie Asher:: . Problem 1 -- CCRP CP33 fix (see map); . Problem 2: East half of field, spray cool season grasses (brome, orchardgrass, fescue) in fall after warm season grasses go dormant, also spray in late winter, early spring; . Note: West half of field looks good
June 28, 2007: Modified contract, consolidated work plan
June 28, 2007: Modified contract, consolidated work plan
September 2007: Meeting with Joe Alley, Brent Vandeloecht, Julie Asher:: . CCRP CP33 grass seed, forbs purchased for 1 acre; . Seed and forbs planted (broadcast and roll, January 2008)
February 2008: Modified contract, consolidated work plan, Larry Fischer, Julie Asher
October 2009: Field visit positive, Wayne McReynolds
January 2010: Compliance with practice requirement on northwest borders. Advised Wayne McReynolds. See blue on Conservation Plan Map 4.
September 2011: Compliance with practice requirement on southeast borders. Advised Wayne McReynolds. See yellow on Conservation Plan Map 4.
September 2011: Compliance with CRP practice requirement -- all borders sprayed. See Conservation Plan Map 4.
Fall 2015: Logging begins.
September 2016: CRP contract expiration.

Conservation Plan Map 1 -- NRCS -- WHIP
Conservation Plan Map 2 -- MDC -- WHIP/CCRP
Conservation Plan Map 3 -- Borders
Conservation Plan Map 4 -- Borders Update
Conservation Plan
Conservation Timeline and Tasks

Area farmers, agribusinesses and students recognized ...

Marcia Gorrell | The Marshall Democrat-News, 3/20/08

Sullivans Plan to Manage Forest on Century Farm

Jenny Bryers | The Marshall Democrat-News, 11/11/03

Siblings William and Sidney Sullivan will be recognized as century farm owners by the Saline County Extension Council and county commission Nov. 17.

They own two farms in Miami, one near the Missouri River bottoms purchased in 1891 and a 26-acre cropland farm with adjoining forests they have owned since 1903 and have leased to various farmers including Gene Eddy for the last six years. The "Bottomland Farm", as the Sullivans call it, was purchased by Dr. A. H. W. Sullivan in 1891 from Louis and Yetta Stix and Caroline Swartz, Nathan Stix and Ricka Stix. In 1935, A. H. W. Sullivan died, leaving his land to 18 heirs. Dr. Frank H. Sullivan ran the estate until his death in 1944, when his son Raymond Sidney Sullivan inherited the land. His children, William and Sidney Sullivan, inherited the land after his death in 1987.

While the Sullivan family maintained ownership, they have leased the bottom lands to the Dorothy and Joe Clements Sr. family for over 75 years.

In 1927, Rance Luther Jenkins and his son Ross Rance Jenkins, Dorothy Clement's father, raised corn and soybeans and occasional crops of milo, alfalfa and wheat on the Sullivan farm. Dorothy and Joe Sr. took over operations in 1951, clearing several acres for farmland, and their children Joe Jr. and Alan Clements still farm 127 acres of the 132-acre farm.

The Sullivans' "Hill Farm" was purchased in 1903 by Dr. A. H. W. Sullivan from John F. and Mary C. Webb for $2,400.

For as long as Sidney Sullivan or her father could remember, 26 acres were farmed and the remaining 61 acres of forest were left alone.

Sidney Sullivan, who is spending her retirement in Marshall and Miami, said she remembers her childhood, picking blackberries and morel mushrooms in the woods and walking through the woods. "I love it back here," she said. "I'm so glad I retired here."

But now she is taking a more active role in farming, inviting a forester to help her manage the forest. "Woods are like anything else, you've got to manage them," Sullivan said. "I have a feeling we may have an overgrowth of one kind of tree and it may be killing off another kind of tree. I don't know what happened to the berries."

Joe Alley, forester for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Boonville, walked around the Hill Farm with Sullivan Tuesday, Nov. 4, noting hickory, ash, black cherry, cottonwood, sycamore, pawpaw and black, white and northern red oak. "This looks pretty beautiful over here," Alley said. "What you've got is red oak, a really nice stand of it, at least 100 years old."

He bored a hole in one of the trees and counted 52 rings, one for each year, and estimated the tree's age at 80 years. Alley said he would test the trees more thoroughly this winter, but could tell the trees are growing well in the deep soil.

The Clements family leases approximately 10 acres of cropland from the Hill Farm.

* Minor edits acknowledged.

Human History ~ Natural History