02/21/06 Governor`s award winner, Gallop

Gordon Gallop grew up on a farm outside Ririe. He's at home there but not so comfortable appearing before a congressional committee. GALLOP "Kind of nerve wracking to sit in front of those gentlemen like that, you know, and be quizzed about your no till farming and things we're trying to do here to conserve not only soil but energy." Gallop's conservation roots began as a child when he saw what a cloudburst did to the sloping terrain on their farm. Gallop and his Dad tried many different methods to stop erosion and runoff. GALLOP "In about 1985 we got into the no till which has basically in my mine almost stopped the erosion. We haven't had any water go over since we've been no tilling. And you go up on these hillsides and you can watch where the water moved off the hillsides and it was just filtered as it went and we haven't lost any soil since then. We're farming through gullies not that as a youth we would have to plow in every spring. And it's actually increased the production since we went to the no till because we have saved the topsoil. That's some of the resident we have left on top. Dig down under that and you see that nice black soil." Gordon Gallop, just honored with a Governor's award for environmental stewardship. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott