The Ducks Stop Here

By Virginia H. Harris
Progressive Farmer Associate Editor

Drew Keeth had a problem on his hands eight years ago when he arrived at his favorite hunting spot -- an area of Louisiana Delta Plantation (LDP) called Honey Brake -- and found the gates secured with new locks. Keeth wasn't trespassing. He had been managing the land as wildlife habitat for years for the owners. As part of his job, hunters from around the area paid him to guide them on hunts on the property. Keeth didn't know it at the time, but those locked gates would lead to a career he never imagined.

NEW OPPORTUNITY

After a few phone calls, Keeth tracked down the new owners. As fate would have it, he knew one from his childhood days, Ron Johnson. After a few discussions, LDP co-owner Johnson hired Keeth as the recreation manager. His new job responsibilities included managing 8,000 acres of Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) land and 30,000 acres of cropland for winter habitat and to guide hunting trips during the waterfowl hunting seasons. Keeth laughs, saying, "I've never managed a property this big, but it's been a fun project."

Keeth's new employer is a prime example of the fruit of hard work. Following college and military service, Johnson had a successful career in petroleum engineering.

But the nomadic lifestyle and long hours proved challenging for his young family. Johnson's epiphany came one day when he came home after a stint in the Gulf of Mexico on a consulting trip to an oil rig.

"I came in from an offshore job when I was 32 years old and my son was 16 months old, and he didn't know who his dad was," Johnson recalls. "I don't know if that was my own motivation or the Lord's spirit provoking me to get my priorities right, but I realized I needed to get my priorities right."

CAREER CHANGE

So in 1967 the young Johnson family moved to Jonesville, La., near where he and his wife grew up, to begin a career in agriculture. He says during his first four years farming independently he "didn't make a dime." The family made do selling Amway products, and Johnson did small petroleum consulting jobs on the side. Johnson says he always loved the outdoors and never minded physical labor, but "the Lord gave me a love for farming that was beyond me."

Johnson eventually accumulated roughly 700 acres of land while leasing additional acres. But he had also discussed off and on the possibility of investing in farmland with his younger brother, Michael, who wanted to diversify his oil and gas company's assets.

In 2005, Louisiana Delta Plantation's founding family put the massive operation up for sale. It included roughly 40,000 acres with 8,000 acres in a permanent WRP easement. With Ron's guidance, Michael purchased the cropland as an investment. A few months later he also purchased the 8,000-acre WRP tract, the hunting ground called Honey Brake, after considering the increased revenue potential of recreational property adjacent to agricultural land.

Johnson adds, "Now my brother knew nothing about the land, knew nothing about farming. So at the time I realized he put a great deal of trust in his older brother."

GOOD MOVE

That investment has paid off. Currently, LDP is home to roughly 22 tenant farmers who rent anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 acres. The farmers grow grain sorghum, soybeans, rice, cotton, corn and wheat.

"And ducks!" Johnson quips.

Those ducks almost became an afterthought. Johnson initially considered splitting up the WRP tract and selling most of it, keeping 2,000 acres for personal use. However, he soon learned the tract is the largest WRP tract in the state and one of the largest in the nation. This sparked a change of heart. Johnson and brother Michael decided to keep the acreage as one tract and turn it into a recreational paradise. In addition, a natural wetland in close proximity to LDP's farmland provides a year-round rich array of habitat and vegetation for the ducks.

LONG-TERM PLAN

"Their (the Johnson brothers') goal when they bought the farm was to make a model farm and hunting paradise within five years," Keeth recalls.

It's eight years later and if that model hasn't been accomplished, the Johnsons have certainly helped create a remarkable operation.

Keeth's role now includes more than just hunting guide and habitat manager. Instead he serves as a spokesman, TV host, businessman and entrepreneur. Today, Honey Brake operates as its own LLC, independent of LDP but with a close relationship, necessitated by working with the farmers who utilize the ground Keeth needs for hunting.

With the Johnson brothers' support and encouragement, Keeth helped develop the plans for a hunter's paradise, which attracts hunters from around the globe. Honey Brake offers a world-class lodge and hunting opportunities for its guests. Honey Brake and LDP are located smack in the middle of the central and Mississippi flyways, meaning hundreds of thousands of waterfowl converge on the central Louisiana area each year as they make their way south and on their return trip north.

The 79-year-old Johnson made sure Honey Brake's facilities were built to exceptional standards -- standards he set himself and implemented. Keeth notes Johnson was extremely hands-on during the construction process, hiring and firing multiple architects before drawing up plans himself. The end result is a three-story lodge with a full kitchen, locker room for guest equipment storage, guest rooms with full baths plus three cabins adjacent to the lodge. The lodge can host 18 guests who have access to the majority of the agricultural land and all of the WRP tract -- that's nearly 40,000 acres of prime waterfowl real estate.

DIVERSIFICATION PAYS

Honey Brake consists of seven revenue streams: hunting (waterfowl, deer, alligator and hogs), a sporting clays range, fee fishing, a sporting club, duck blind leases, a TV show called "The Honey Brake Experience" and, coming in 2014, a summer camp. What started as a duck hunter's dream now operates year round.

To keep things running, the operation employs a staff of six in the lodge plus nine hunting guides and three operational managers. Keeth points out duck season only lasts 60 days, and keeping topnotch guides and support staff means creating other jobs for them during the off-season. This includes hosting guests for fee fishing during summer months and hosting shooting tournaments on the sporting clays range. Also, soon the guides will serve as counselors at the summer camp.

Asked if the investment in the recreational opportunities have been worth it, Johnson offers two insights.

The first is just bare-bones finance: "Land has tripled in value since [2005], and at one point in time we had an opportunity to sell at a profit ... so the Lord has really blessed [the farm]."

Secondly, Johnson explains he made a promise to himself as a young engineer to seriously evaluate any opportunity that came his way.

"I did not evaluate the potential of the WRP land," he says. "So ... I drove through the WRP land and looked at what I could do with it and what would be the potential. I talked to my brother, and we decided we would purchase it," Johnson recalls.

Chasing new opportunities is a trait Johnson and Keeth share, something that makes their relationship work so well. It's a trait that showcases one of Keeth's guiding principles, too.

"My grandpa told me years ago, 'Son, if you ever get to where your heart's not pumping and you're a little short of breath, then you're not hunting anymore, you're killing.' And that's not what we do. We're hunters," he recalls. "After I started duck hunting and got successful with that, then I wanted to be a guide, then I wanted to manage properties. It's all been setting a goal and reaching it. It's been a pretty neat ride."

A pretty neat ride, indeed. Honey Brake's 2013-2014 season was fully booked months before opening day, and the lodge is currently taking reservations for 2015. For more information, visit www.honeybrake.com.

DOUBLE DUTY

The land that comprises Louisiana Delta Plantation (LDP) and Honey Brake serves double duty as a farmer's income and hunter's paradise. This alliance is rare and not without occasional tensions, but everyone at Honey Brake recites the mantra: On agricultural land, "farming comes first."

Jared Mophett, one of Drew Keeth's guide partners and the current habitat manager at Honey Brake, stresses that keeping farmers happy keeps him and Honey Brake's customers happy. He works year round to cultivate appropriate feeding grounds for the ducks. His favorite phrase is, "The most important days of the year are the days prior to duck season."

Mophett communicates with farmers throughout the crop season and more intensely around harvest when the first waterfowl season, teal, opens. Then, he sets to work installing duck blinds, preparing duck-friendly vegetation and flooding the ground. He points out rules are clearly stated to blind renters and lodge guests. One of the rules is that entrance and exit to blinds on farm fields must be made in one path on an ATV, to reduce any disturbance to the ground. Mophett adds many farmers like having their fields flooded during the winter because it prevents weed growth and keeps soil moist.

Even though oversight by the Natural Resources Conservation Service prevents aggressive wildlife management on Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) tracts, the guides at Honey Brake sing the program's praises for its restoration of native habitat. Honey Brake's WRP was cleared with the rest of LDP for crop production in the early 1960s, but frequent flooding at the lowest elevations prevented the tract from sustained exceptional production. Mophett notes no man-made effort can provide the same quality habitat for waterfowl that the WRP offers.

WETLANDS RESERVE PROGRAM

Steve Cruse has worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service for 30 years, starting as a soil conservationist in Ruston, La., to his current position as assistant state conservationist for programs. He was the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) team leader for Louisiana when the former owners of Louisiana Delta Plantation decided to put the Honey Brake area of the farm into WRP. The perpetual easement covers 8,000 acres of restored native wetland, meaning the land will never return to crop production.

He acknowledges the guidelines for WRP are strict and any revenue-generating activities on a WRP tract must be conducted with close oversight with the NRCS. Annual review of WRP tracts means NRCS conservationists know what farmers are doing on their WRP property and can give advice on habitat enhancements or require landowners cease activities that don't meet the compatible use authorization permit. Under WRP guidelines, landowners retain four basic rights: the right to sell the property, the right to private access, the right to recreational use and the right and responsibility to pay taxes. Cruse notes recreational use can include economic gain, but must fall within the guidelines of quiet enjoyment. This means permanent structures or significant alterations aren't allowed to the property, but "rustic" hunting stands or blinds may be erected. Honey Brake's lodge, cabins and youth camp are built on land adjacent to the WRP tract; therefore they don't impede on the purpose of the restoration. Cruse recommends landowners interested in enrolling property in WRP meet with their district conservationists.

The WRP is an intensive restoration project that implements long-term or permanent native habitat restoration on a property, thus limiting future use of the property.

Visit www.nrcs.usda.gov for more information.

(AG/CZ)

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