By Chris Aldridge

Kentucky Ag News

Fred Sipes has received accolades recognizing his environmental stewardship during more than three decades of farming in Meade County near Ekron, Ky.

“He won the Leopold Conservation Award in 2021 and was also named the (2019) Southern Region Conservation Legacy Award winner (by the American Soybean Association) for the care he takes of our land, water, soil, and air natural resources,” said Rae Wagoner of the Kentucky Soybean Association.

Sipes is one of Kentucky's three representatives on the American Soybean Association Board.

“I'm very honored to be serving in that role,” he said. “We had a meeting in (Washington) D.C. last (month). We talked about trade, which is very important right now with the talk of tariffs.

“Soybean markets are also down a little bit now from where they were a few years ago. It wasn't that long ago that we were selling $14 beans (per bushel). Now they're around $10.

“We're just trying to express our concerns to the leaders (in Congress) to get our markets back and get a little better price on our soybeans.”

Sipes began growing 50 acres of burley tobacco fresh out of Meade County High School in 1994. Over the past 30 years, he acquired and rented more land, some in neighboring Breckinridge County, to raise beef cattle and grow soybeans, corn, and wheat.

Sipes said he’s proud of the diversified operation he’s built. He and his wife, Stacey, have twin 6-year-old boys, Joe and Sam.

“When I started my farm years ago, back in the ’90s, it was mainly burley tobacco and beef cattle,” he said. “Slowly we've transitioned into a couple thousand acres of row crops.

“Depending on our crop rotation and the weather, I'd say we'll have around 1,600-1,800 acres of soybeans this year. I'd say 85 percent of our acres are corn/soybean rotation every year, and we're actually a little heavier on beans this year than we are on corn because of picking up some (new) ground this year. It’s farmland that was in corn last year, so we're beaning it as well.”

April is Soybean Month in Kentucky. Soybeans are the Commonwealth’s top agricultural product at $1.4 billion in cash receipts. Kentucky farmers harvested 1.82 million acres of beans in 2023, producing more than 100 million bushels of the crop.

According to research by the University of Kentucky, late April and early May is the optimal time to plant soybeans for the best yields in the Commonwealth, so Sipes is busy preparing his fields.

“We're moving equipment now and putting down a bunch of fertilizer,” Sipes said. “We're going to try to plant soybeans (this) week. Planting early doesn't affect your input cost at all. You're going to plant them anyway, whether it's in May or April.

“So, we're going to try and push the envelope a little bit on our farm, plant a few 100 acres of beans, and hopefully increase our yields, which obviously increases our profit too.”