Members of the DEP Citizens Advisory Council Tuesday visited the Dennis Garman Farm in Cumberland County to see first-hand how a working dairy farm incorporates best management practices into its operations to not only reduce their environmental footprint, but to improve profitability.

Dennis Garman is a third generation farmer who farms between 1,400 and 1,500 acres of farmland every year raising wheat, soybeans and other crops to support his 220-cow dairy herd.

The Garman Farm incorporates several BMPs into its operations, including: farm drainage controls to prevent clean water from getting dirty, a manure storage facility to better control land application of manure, using no-till farming practices to limit the disturbance of the soil, planting cover crops and double cropping to help keep soil on the land, retaining forested stream buffers along a stream on the farm and roofing over heavy use animal areas to control runoff.

Dennis Garman took Council members on a tour of his farm with additional comments by Pam Eyer, Cumberland County Conservation District, Scott Williamson, DEP Southcentral Regional Office and Bill Fink, a CAC member and Environmental Manager for Country View Family Farms, who helped arrange the tour.

Click Here to watch a video from the tour highlighting the Garman Farm best management practices.

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