No Life Without Water
Tabby Bennett
“You have to have water - especially
in drought years. Seasons with little
rain are tough.”
These are the words of an experienced farmer
who raises beef cattle and hay, and knows a thing
or two about how to improve and make the most
of his water supply. Dick Barnes of Flat Top, West
Virginia has been farming since the late 1960s. He
and his dad bought their first farm around 1968,
then purchased another around 1971. Barnes was
a salesman for most of his life, but now farms
full time and manages a beautiful 300-acre piece
16 West Virginia Farm Bureau News
of land full of hay, lots of fence, breathtaking
mountain views and seven ponds.
Two of Barnes’ ponds were created through the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
with the technical and engineering assistance of
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
For one pond in particular, Barnes had a difficult
time figuring out how he could create a large
enough dam to hold water. One day he had the
idea of removing top soil from one of his fields,
then later replacing it so he could get the results he
needed to create the pond.