What would become Green Sprig Ag was started in 2005 when they purchased a no-till drill and rented some crop land. A couple years later the business expanded and began offering King’s Agri-seed as part of seed sales and a customer panting operation. From 2020-2012, the business again expanded to offer seed cleaning and a mill, cover crop seed mixes began to be offered in 2012 after the mill was established. Milled livestock feed began to be offered in 2017. In June 2021, a big change was made when the entire operation moved to a neighboring farm, which is the current location of Green Sprig Ag today.

Green Sprig Ag is a leader in the local agricultural community, being a provider of cover crop seed and other crop seed as well as custom planting and “go to” for cover crop blends. This farm has 417 acres of cropland. The motto for cover crops is “every acre all the time”. It is run on a systems approach, focusing on long rotations and double cropping in the summer. Crops include various small grain varieties, corn, sunflowers, grain sorghum, and soybeans. As part of the system, crops are planted in a targeting manner to control weeds and disease. Livestock are also used in a targeted manner to suppress weed in crop fields. Green Sprig Ag has also conducted several crop trials over the years and often experiment with different crop for bother viability and profitability. More recently cereal rye mixed with brassicas has been used as a high biomass combination and wheat mixed with Austrian Winter Pea has resulted in a combination harvested together that is both good for soil fertility and high profitable rates.

The livestock operation of Green Sprig Ag consists of 422 hair sheep, 75 pigs with some beef cattle and pastured poultry. The sheep are intensively grazed. They do not graze more than ten days due to both parasite control pasture degradation but are usually moved much more frequently with the use of both permanent exclusion and water trough, and the use of portable electric fencing. All streams on the farm practice livestock exclusion, including the Pigg River which flows through the middle of the farm with established riparian buffers. Green Sprig Ag partnered with the Blue Ridge Soil & Water Conservation District on stream exclusion and rotation grazing projects completed in 2023 and 2024. Green Sprig Ag has both conservation and grazing plans (provided by the district). However, is managed with a more elaborate homemade plan for both crop rotation and livestock rotation. This farm operated with a Nutrient Management plan in the past and is now in the process of working with a certified planner to produce and implement an updated Nutrient Management plan.

For the past several years, Green Sprig Ag has hosted field days and has been a long time participant in the VANTAGE No-Till and Common Green Alliances. Farm management has recently participated int he Ranch Management Consultants. These field days have been attended by members of the public and many NRCS and Conservation District directors and staff. In addition to organizations and events, Green Sprig Ag also instructs farm owners how to run their own enterprises, employing people for a term of service with the objective that by the end of the term, they will be prepared to run their own agricultural enterprise.

In addition to the 417 acres of cropland, there is an additional 86 acres of hay land, 80 acres of pasture and 205 acres of woodland that make up the farming operation of Green Sprig Ag. The amount of conservation in the agricultural community as a whole, we congratulate Green sprig Ag for earning the 2024 Clean Water Farm Award.