Dad would have been proud.

Michael Haley said his father, Eugene, was always interested in farming and finding methods to conserve the soil. Haley said his father had won at least one other Bankers Award in the past, but he died before he could win another.

Betty Jo Haley, left, and her farm operator, Joe Turner, won a Kansas Bankers Assn. Conservation Award. Turner said he used terraces, contour farming and minimum-till farming. Haley is continuing her late husband's efforts at conservation. Eugene Haley won a Bankers Award in the past.

Eugene Haley’s wife, Betty Jo Haley, and farm operator Joe Turner won the Kansas Bankers Assn. Conservation Award this year for their conservation efforts.

“My husband was so interested in farm conservation. We owned a few farms in the area, and that was absolutely first with him — good quality farmland and conservation of the soil,” Betty Jo Haley said.

Turner said he used conservation techniques such as terraces, contour farming and minimum-till farming. Minimum-till farming differs from no-till in that the soil is slightly disturbed before planting instead of being completely untouched.

Turner leaves stubble from the harvested soybean crop on the ground through the winter to collect moisture. In the spring, he cultivates it just once before planting.

Turner said he grew up on a farm and has farmed all of his life. He now works with his two sons and farms two pieces of land for Haley of about 113 acres each, growing soybeans and corn. The property is about five miles from the Osage County line in southwest Douglas County.

Michael Haley said his father bought the land about 20 years ago. The family also owns land in Brown and Phillips counties, he said.

Betty Jo Haley said she was delighted to receive the award. She said her husband had a special interest in farming, even though the two always had lived in Lawrence and never in the country.

Her son said the family, with the help of Turner, would continue to utilize conservation techniques like his father would have wanted.

“All of this happened under my father’s direction,” he said. “My mother and I want to carry it on. We see it as extremely important.”