Ag Stewardship Award

Recognizing Farmers Who Protect Missouri’s Future

The Missouri Agriculture Stewardship Award recognizes the high bar set in Missouri agriculture for the careful and responsible management of the land, natural resources, and animals entrusted to the care of Missouri farmers and ranchers. Ninety three percent of Missouri land is held by private landowners, with 27 million acres managed as farms and ranches. Missouri farmers take seriously our role in ensuring natural resources are managed so that they are left better for the generations that follow.

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Who is this Award For?

The Missouri Agricultural Stewardship award will be presented to one farm or ranch family each year at Missouri agricultural and natural resource conferences. Recipients are extended invitations throughout the year to speak on panels and present at conferences to share experiences with fellow producers. Award recipients will host an on-farm tour at a time of their choosing. They receive a farm sign recognizing the award and a $5,000 honorarium.

Nomination Process and Deadlines

Missouri Farmers Care is seeking award applicants who demonstrate the best of innovation, stewardship and diligence in their land management decisions. This prestigious award recognizes the best of the best in production stewardship and, in doing so, inspires adoption of innovative management strategies across Missouri agriculture.

1)

What You’ll Need

To nominate your farm, applicants must submit an application regarding their operation’s stewardship practices and ethics, accompanied with up to three letters of recommendation.

2)

How to Apply

Submit the application online.
Applicants must be submitted or postmarked by June 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m.

View Printable Application Instructions and Criteria

To Previous Nominees

If you submitted a nomination package in the past and would like to be considered for the 2027 award cycle, please contact Ashley McCarty, Missouri Farmers Care Executive Director at ashley@mofarmerscare.com.

2026 Missouri Ag Stewardship Award Recipient

Paulsmeyer Farms

Stewards for the Future; Producing a Legacy

The rich alluvial soil of the Missouri River bottoms near Chamois in Agri-Ready Osage County holds the legacy of fourth generation river bottom farmer, Arthur Paulsmeyer, Sr., and his stewardship of the natural resources entrusted to him. His stories whisper among the timber stands and meander with the river’s curves that block the end of one field from the beginning of the next. Arthur’s farm has evolved but the legacy remains: each generation of Paulsmeyers prioritize leaving the land better for the generations to come and commit to bringing the next generation back to live and work on the family farm.

“The 2026 Missouri Agriculture Stewardship Award recognizes the hard work and dedication of our family through the generations. Our farm can serve as an example for others to follow,” says Grayson, who plans to be an eighth-generation river bottom farmer.

The Paulsmeyers have a research mindset that allows them to farm with exactness, optimizing and protecting the land in their care. Data informed decisions help to eliminate excessive application and over dependence on inputs; they minimize wasting time and resources on things that aren’t effective in the river bottoms.

Paulsmeyer Farms uses drones to reduce water consumption, soil compaction, and allow for precise applications of crop protection products. Track implements are used instead of wheeled tractors to protect soil. Autosteer and auto path innovations improve accuracy and minimize fuel consumption. Rotational grazing allows for forage recovery, biodiversity, and environmental health.

“Our uncles wanted us to come back to the family farm, but there wasn’t room to support us,” shares Ben.

By reducing inputs with precision and decreasing dependence on mechanization, less Paulsmeyers were needed to operate the farm. If Arthur Sr.’s great-grandchildren were to get the opportunity to carry on the family’s generational legacy of farming, something had to change.

To support Ben’s farm salary in 2010 when he returned to the farm post-college, Paulsmeyer Farms acres were dedicated to a produce enterprise he began as a young boy. Ben partnered with his brothers Alex and Eli and started Boys From Chamois. The brothers grow cantaloupe, sweet corn, pumpkins, and watermelons-seeded and seedless. They added a high tunnel for tomato production and grow cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, potatoes, and onions. The Boys’ roadside farm stand is a nearly famous destination for fresh produce in Chamois.

River bottom farming is dynamic. Landforms and land use (such as timber stands) affect growing conditions in fields end to end.

“Soil stewardship is more than just what crop we plant, what inputs we choose, or what machines we use,” Ben describes. “Stewardship is also understanding what our soil is made of and where our fields lay in relation to how the river moves. Our decisions about how and where we plant are based on our family’s generational knowledge of how the river runs, where it rushes versus where it rises through the timber, and where it swirls back. It’s not a matter of if it will flood, but when it will flood and how much.”

The Paulsmeyer ancestors planted their first crop in the Missouri River bottoms in 1837 and put down roots near Chamois in the 1880’s. Arthur Sr. would appreciate how his work ethic and values still guide the sixth, seventh, and eighth generations of Paulsmeyers through farming practices, land stewardship, leadership, land farm succession in the Missouri River bottoms.

Previous Award Recipients

2025

Stanton Family Farms

Centralia, Missouri

2023

Cope Grass Farm

Truxton, Missouri

2022

Britt Farms

Clifton Hill, Missouri

2021

Oetting Homestead Farms

Concordia, Missouri

2020

Joshlin and Addie Yoder

Leonard, Missouri

2019

Brinkers Farms, INC.

Auxvasse, Missouri

2018

Scherder Farms

Frankford, Missouri

2017

Uptown Farms

Laclede, Missouri

What Our Recipients Say

“The 2026 Missouri Agriculture Stewardship Award recognizes the hard work and dedication of our family through the generations. Our farm can serve as an example for others to follow,” says Grayson, who plans to be an eighth generation Missouri River bottom farmer.”
Grayson Gerloff, Paulsmeyer Farms
“Stewardship is more than just what crop we plant, what inputs we choose, or what machines we use,” Ben describes. “Stewardship is also understanding what our soil is made of and where our fields lay in relation to how the river moves..”
Ben Paulsmeyer, Paulsmeyer Farms