For Adam Myers, conservation isn’t simply another practice on his Indiana farm. It’s a commitment to the future.
That commitment has earned Myers Sod Farm LLC near Seymour in Jackson County the second-place honor in the 2026 Red Gold Stewardship Award, recognizing the operation’s ongoing efforts to protect soil, improve water quality and build a stronger farm for generations to come.
The award, presented by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and Red Gold, is now in its 18th year. It recognizes producers who demonstrate a strong commitment to soil health and water conservation.
For Myers Sod Farms, that commitment is visible across the operation.
The southern Indiana farm grows corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, sod and tomatoes, while incorporating a broad range of conservation practices designed to keep valuable soil in place and water moving safely across the landscape.
Those practices include small grains, cover crops, grass filter strips, grassed waterways, water and sediment control basins, vegetative field borders and blind inlets.
It’s a conservation system built around a simple philosophy.
“Practicing conservation is important on our farm. We feel that if we take care of the land, it will take care of us,” Myers said.
That mindset is becoming increasingly important as farmers face pressure to produce more while protecting the natural resources that make production possible.
Indiana farmers planted more than 1.5 million acres of cover crops in 2025, part of a broader effort across the Midwest to improve soil health and reduce nutrient and sediment losses.
The Red Gold Stewardship Award highlights the farmers working behind the scenes to make those efforts part of their everyday operations.
“Farmers lead the way in protecting our land and water, and this award reflects the hard work happening on farms across our state every day,” said Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who also serves as Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture.
Don Lamb, ISDA Director, also emphasized the generational nature of conservation.
“Our farmers continue to set the gold standard for their commitment to conservation, and ISDA’s partnership through the Red Gold Stewardship Award exemplifies that very standard,” Lamb said. “The care our growers and producers devote day in and day out, is often taught across generations, serving each and every one of us for years to come.”
That same long-term perspective is at the heart of Red Gold’s stewardship program.
Curt Utterback, Red Gold’s director of agriculture, said the company has had 100% participation in the stewardship program for several years, noting that many of its growers are multi-generational operations where caring for the land is a top priority.
“They want to ensure that there will be future opportunities for themselves and others,” Utterback said.
This year’s first-place honor went to Niese Ag LLC of Pandora, Ohio, while Myers Sod Farm LLC earned second place.
As the second-place winner, Myers Sod Farm received a $750 scholarship and an additional half-load delivery of tomatoes per day.
But the bigger payoff is measured in something far more valuable than a scholarship or an extra tomato load.
For the Myers operation, stewardship is an investment in the ground beneath their feet—and in the generations that will farm it long after today’s crops are harvested.
