Delmarva Chicken Association accepting nominations for Malone Environmental Award

By Linda Cicoira

The Delmarva Chicken Association, a 1,400-member strong trade group for chicken growers, is accepting nominations for its George (Bud) Malone Environmental Award.

For the fourth consecutive year, the spotlight will be on someone who goes above and beyond to make a farm environmentally responsible and compatible with neighboring properties. The award winner will also receive a $500 prize.

According to DCA spokesperson James Fisher, nominations will be accepted through June 20, 2025. Applications are available at:

dcachicken.com/Malone-award.

Association staff may contact the owners of nominated farms to schedule a visit and identify and verify the practices listed on the application. The Grower Committee will review the applications and choose the recipient. The winner will be recognized at a grower event with a plaque, a news release promoting the grower’s accomplishments, and may be nominated for US POULTRY’s Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award.

The George (Bud) Malone award is named for a grower who had the foresight to begin DCA’s nationally recognized vegetative environmental buffers program, resulting in the planting of thousands of trees, shrubs, and grasses on family-owned poultry farms on Delmarva, thus leading to improved relations between farmers and their neighbors.

To qualify, the grower must be a DCA member at the $150 level or above. Applications will be accepted from a grower, a grower’s family, friends, flock supervisors, or state or federal agencies.

      Practices to be considered include well-maintained and well-kept heavy-use pads; vegetative environmental buffers around chicken houses, at property lines, and around pongs and manure sheds; pollinator-friendly vegetative buffer plots; overall cleanliness,; grass buffers near tunnel farms to contain dust, feathers, and odor; solar energy or other energy efficient features; excellent mortality composting practices; commendable appearance and maintenance of manure storage structures; well-maintained farm roads, weed control around chicken houses; proper drainage, including stormwater ponds; and other adaptations or practices the grower has made to benefit neighbor relations.