Clara Beth Claxon-Kentucky

Clara Beth Claxon and her late husband bought their Kentucky cattle farm in 1988. Her land is hilly, and water flows right down it. She participated in the Ohio River Basin Trading Program so that she could afford a heavy-use pad for her cattle. The program, established by the Electric Power Research Institute, American Farmland Trust, and other partners, lets industries purchase water-quality “credits” from farmers in the watershed. The farmers use the funds from the credits to pay for conservation practices that reduce the amount of fertilizer running off their fields and barnyards.

Before she put in the heavy-use pad, the mud in her farm’s feeding area was so deep her boots would “just about pull off my feet.” Her improvement keeps the barnyard clean and prevents manure from washing away.

“It made a great big difference in my farm and in my life,” she says. “You can see the difference in the cattle, how much better they look.