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Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina (FCNC) announces the protection of the Beam family's 292-acre Kudzu Cow Farm in Rutherford County through a perpetual agricultural conservation easement. The Beam family's ownership of the property can be traced back prior to the founding of the United States. The farm consists of agricultural fields, forests, surface waters and residential and farm buildings, and has had conservation-focused agricultural practices consistently performed on it for over 80 years.
The project was made possible because of the conservation ethic of landowners Stuart, William, Natalie and Hannah Beam, and Caroline Edwards, and through grant funding by the NC Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
Kudzu Cow Farm has been in the Edwards-Beam family since a land grant was given by Josiah Martin, an English governor, in 1774. The farm, in its current form, came into being in 1961, when W. Henry Edwards inherited the core 120 acres of land by deed that had been handed down through the family and subsequently bought out his cousins to add to the farm. At this time, the farm operation was for Holstein dairy cows.
During a drought in 1963, Edwards began to experiment with feeding kudzu to his cows through a process of first cutting the kudzu then placing it in a ground silo, where it pickled into silage. Because the cows thrived on this mixture, the farm was named Kudzu Cow Farm.
"Kudzu Cow Farm was one of the first conservation projects I took on when I began working at FCNC in 2022," stated Michael Gaffney, Conservation & GIS Specialist. "It has been a pleasure getting to know the Beam family and spending time on their wonderful farm, and an honor to have assisted them in implementing a conservation easement that will ensure that their centuries-old farm will be available for agriculture in perpetuity, preserving open space and protecting water quality in southern Rutherford County," continued Gaffney.
The property has significant conservation values, including being designated an NC Natural Heritage Program Natural Area, ranked R3 (High) and C5 (General) because of the presence of high quality examples of Dry-Mesic Oak-Hickory Forest, as well as habitat for dwarf-flowered heartleaf (Hexastylis naniflora), a rare species of flowering plant endemic to the upper Piedmont region of western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. Conservation of this property also protects water quality of the Broad River and its watershed in Rutherford County, and counties downstream.
"We are so grateful to Foothills Conservancy for working with us to protect our farm for future generations," said Edith Edwards, grandmother of the current landowners. "Growing up with his grandfather here in the 1920s, my husband Henry cherished this land that was handed down in the family since 1773, a Kings Grant. It was Henry's dream that it would be forever farmland. It is an important legacy for the community to know it will always be open space, protected from development and used for food and fiber production," Edith continued.
The family also cultivates various row crops on the land, such as soybeans, corn and small grain sorghum, and produces five types of hay crops, including fescue, orchard grass, timothy rye grass and alfalfa, all while adhering to conservation practices. These agricultural conservation practices include no-till planting, wildlife protection during harvest by mowing regimen, reducing spray drift with air induction nozzles on chemical application equipment and carefully monitoring nitrogen applications.
"Foothills Conservancy is sincerely grateful for the Beam family's partnership and trust in our organization to help them protect their farm in perpetuity," said Andrew Kota, Executive Director. "They are exemplary agricultural producers and stewards of the land, and it is an absolute honor to have had the opportunity to help ensure that quality agricultural land, such as theirs, and rural landscapes of Western North Carolina are safe and secure for centuries to come."
Foothills Conservancy of N.C. is a nationally accredited regional land trust that inspires conservation in Western North Carolina by permanently protecting land and water for the benefit of people and all living things. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Foothills Conservancy has permanently protected over 71,500 acres across Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Lincoln, McDowell, and Rutherford, and river basins: the Broad, Catawba, and Yadkin. Visit www.foothillsconservancy.org or call 828-437-9930.
