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Stewardship Ranch

The Stewardship Ranch is 285 acres adjacent to the Kerr Center office, located just south of Poteau in southeastern Oklahoma. It is a portion of the 4000 acre Kerr Ranch, established by Senator Robert S. Kerr in the 1950s.

The Stewardship Ranch demonstrates that farms and ranches can maintain agricultural productivity and profitability, while providing for wildlife habitat and conserving natural resources. Many of the center’s educational programs are conducted on the ranch. Interns assist center staff with livestock, horticulture, and organic production projects.

For more than twenty years, beef cattle have been raised on the ranch using management intensive grazing methods that sustain the grass and soil. A small herd of Pineywoods Cattle, a heritage breed, graze near the office, while cattle particularly suited to the region (Angus-Senepol cross) graze other areas of the ranch.

The Kerr Center Meat Goat Program began in 2007 with the establishment of the Oklahoma Commercial Meat Goat Forage Performance Test, and expanded to include a commercial doe herd later that year. The commercial doe operation is used to educate and inform producers about sustainable meat goat management.

Pastured poultry is another new project. The ranch is the new home for a flock of Rhode Island Reds (rose comb), a heritage breed raised at the Overstreet-Kerr Historical Farm.

The Kerr Center uses one area of the Stewardship Ranch for horticulture projects. In 2008, Kerr Center entered a new era of horticultural work on the Stewardship Ranch that includes more in-depth work with organic growing methods and evaluations of heritage crop varieties.

We are converting about five acres of pasture to certified organic status as our main demonstration and research site. The site features a long-term soil-building rotation based on cover crops, green manures, and modest inputs of compost. There is a hoop house, greenhouse, and compost area.
Throughout the Kerr Ranch, best management practices have been implemented to protect riparian areas (streams and ponds). Also ongoing are agroforestry projects.

Billboards along the highway near the ranch explain projects. The staff reaches out to farmers and ranchers through regular field days and workshops. A number of publications explaining Stewardship Ranch projects are available.

The Eight Areas of Sustainability guide farm management decisions.

In 2000, the Kerr Center and the Stewardship Ranch won a Merit Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society for protection of riparian areas on the Stewardship Ranch and for educating landowners about protecting their water and soil.