Farm Progress would like to express its appreciation and gratefulness to each U.S. veteran and their families for their service and sacrifices this Veterans Day and every day!

When Army Veteran Justin Glenn cold called the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Decatur, Texas, he didn’t expect to reach fellow veteran and soil conservationist, Ernest Dunson.

Glenn had 187 acres, Glenn Acres, he wanted to develop for cattle, but he wasn’t sure where to start. Dunson recalled his first meeting with Glenn and his openness to “any and all suggestions.” Together they developed a plan.

Justin Glenn completed his EQIP contract two years ahead of schedule. (Photo courtesy of NRCS)

Glenn was Army EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) responsible for locating, identifying, and disposing of hazardous unexploded conventional, chemical, and biological ordnance and improvised explosives. He served six years, completing three combat tours in Iraq and two more in Egypt with the U.S. peacekeeping force on the Sinai Peninsula.

“Justin Glenn, with his work ethic on the contract that we had with him through our program, has been amazing,” Dunson said. As soon as the contract was approved, Glenn hit the ground running, securing contractors.

EQIP

With Dunson’s support, Glenn initiated a variety of conservation practices through NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program to improve and preserve his land. Practices included rotational grazing and cross fencing to improve and preserve grasses, digging ponds, grade stabilization structures, a planting initiative involving native grasses, and a planned prescribed burn.

“He ultimately ended up finishing his contract two years ahead of schedule,” Dunson said. “It was supposed to be completed in 2024, but he installed the last practice in December of 2022.”

Dunson noted Glenn’s eagerness and work ethic.

“I think a lot of that came from him being in the military. It allowed him to prioritize, ‘Okay, this needs to be done at a certain time. If I finish ahead of schedule it’s going to be even better.’ So, he attacked it with that kind of mentality, and it worked out in his favor.”

Glenn Acres

Glenn Acres is tucked into the quiet, rural landscape of Wise County. It sits just outside of Bridgeport, Texas, in an area known for hot and humid summers and mild to cool winters.

Justin Glenn with his four girls in a 2022 photo, is thankful to have a place in the country to raise his family. (Photo Courtesy of NRCS)

“It’s our little family paradise,” Glenn said. He’s lived there with his family since 2020.

From the barn and recreation room to the backyard pond, to the winding trails leading around the ranch, Glenn Acres is a sort of utopia to Glenn and his four girls.

“We still live close to the city and have all the modern amenities, but the children also get to keep chickens and rabbits and ducks, and we have cows and go on nature hikes every day,” he said. “I think it’s a really great life for them.”

Closer to home

It’s also a place where he and his dad, Steven Glenn, hope to eventually work fulltime.

“Me and my father and family have always desired to have a place that we could actually live on,” he said.

Justin comes from a long line of military servicemen. His father was Army airborne and his grandfather a Marine who served for four years[JC4]  around the time of the Korean War.

“When I had the opportunity, no one pushed me forward toward it or anything,” Justin explained. He just felt like serving was something he had to do.

Ranching is multi-generational in his family as well.

“My grandfather and my father grew up on a family ranch in Aledo, south of here in Johnson County,” Justin said. They eventually got out but later bought a West Texas ranch where they ran a small herd of cattle.

This is Justin’s first ranch to spearhead.

Working the plan

The shared military experience between Justin and his dad is serving them well on the ranch.

“Work is still work, but when you’re doing activities out here on the ranch, whether it’s fencing, running cattle, helping our calves be born and stuff like that, it doesn’t feel like work,” Justin said. “It feels like more of an accomplishment.”

In the first two years of working with NRCS, brush management has increased the Glenns’ ability to grow healthy grass. They’ve even noticed some native grass and flowers emerging.

During Dunson’s first site walk as he inventoried the ranch’s resources, he noticed a 25-foot-deep gulley. He suggested installing GSS, grade stabilization structures, which are meant to control any gully class of erosion.

The idea was to install a dam with a pipe that goes through the dam, allowing water to flow out on a controlled basis instead of gushing down, while packing water over the head cut to stop erosion, Dunson explained.

Justin Glenn expressed his thanks for NRCS assisting him and his father with this project. (Photo courtesy of NRCS)

The GSS would also serve a small “island” in the center of the dam’s pond where Justin has strung a zipline from one of the banks to the island’s center, a place his family enjoys on hot days.

Additional projects included brush management, planting native grasses on about 22 acres of rangeland and 3,600 feet in cross fencing.

Rotational grazing was instrumental in the Glenns’ ability to cross fence. “A lot of our grasses are native grasses, so we try not to overgraze them,” Justin said. “We leave them on a pasture as little as two weeks up to three weeks and then rotate them onto the next spot.”

Justin praised the NRCS for coming out and educating him and his father.

“The ranch is important to us,” Justin said. “We’ve always grown up on the land. It’s kind of a heritage thing, a family thing, and we’ve been doing it for so many generations. We’re definitely not getting rich doing it, but it does supplement our income and make it affordable for us to live out here.”