On fall weekends in Montgomery, about 54 miles from Houston, the hum of tractors mingles with the laughter of families at P6 Farms. Children tug their parents toward vintage carnival rides, grandparents point out old hand pumps by the duck races, and city-dwellers trade sidewalks for wide open spaces abundant with soil, often for the first time. At the center of it all is Bo Poole, a fifth-generation rancher, conservationist, and Chairman of the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), whose life’s work is rooted in a simple belief: agriculture is not just a livelihood, it’s a legacy.
“I guess you could say I grew up in it,” Poole says with a smile. “Dad always did stuff with NRCS, which was tied to the SWCD. He was big into the conservation side of it, growing grass. And to grow grass, you’ve gotta grow roots; to grow roots, you’ve gotta have good dirt.”
That philosophy has guided the Poole family for nearly half a century and continues to shape how Bo manages both his ranch and his leadership in local conservation. When he was asked to serve as an SWCD director, it came as a surprise. “We lost a really good guy who had served a long time, and I didn’t expect to be asked,” he said. “But I was honored, and I still am. I want to see where we can go and how we can educate people.”
P6 Farms is a place where agriculture is lived and experienced, not just observed. Bo and his wife, Carey, have spent years transforming the family’s working cow-calf operation into a destination where visitors reconnect with the land and learn about conservation in unexpected ways.
From pumpkins ripening on the vine to corn growing tall before harvest, everything on the farm serves a purpose. Even the eight-acre corn maze has a second life; once the season ends, it’s harvested and stored to feed the cattle through winter. “We’re using it for two purposes,” Bo said. “It’s something people can enjoy and learn from, but it’s also feed for our herd. Nothing here goes to waste.”
The same philosophy extends beyond crops. Every spring, tractors drag and aerate pastures and spread manure, a practice Bo learned from his father that improves soil health and fertilizes the land naturally. “It’s a night-and-day difference,” he says. “You spread the manure around, and you’re fertilizing. Dragging, aerating, rotating, all of it helps the soil itself. And we’ve been doing that forever. We just didn’t call it ‘soil health’ back then. We just knew it worked.”
The farm’s educational approach has shifted over time. While school field trips were once a major part of the operation, today P6 Farms welcomes families from across the Houston region. Many visitors arrive with little agricultural experience, some even ask if the maze is indoors or if the farm is covered. But they leave with more than they came for: dirt under their fingernails, a better understanding of where their food comes from, and a deeper appreciation for the land.
“They come out of the city, and when they’re here, they leave that life behind,” Carey says. “They’re walking barefoot, they’re laughing, they’re picking pumpkins straight off the vine. It’s not just a visit, it’s an experience.”
For Bo, conservation is more than a buzzword. It's the foundation of everything he does. As SWCD Chairman, he helps guide programs that protect soil and water resources while educating landowners and future generations. “Sometimes people think farmers and ranchers are using all the water or hurting the environment,” he says. “We’re not. If we put less water on a crop, we’re saving money. If we grow more grass the right way, we can run more cattle on the same land. Education helps people see what we’re really doing.”
That education extends far beyond P6 Farms. Bo serves on the Farm Service Agency county committee, volunteers with the Montgomery County Fair, and works closely with local partners like NRCS, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Monthly SWCD meetings bring these groups together to share ideas and resources. “It takes a village,” Bo says. “If nobody’s involved, nothing changes, but when we all sit down together, we’ve got a lot of brain power to solve problems.”
He believes schools remain a critical part of the conservation conversation. Even for students who live in subdivisions, water, soil, and natural resource management matter. “If a sprinkler’s running into the street, that’s not conservation,” he says. “Water is precious, and it’s going to get tougher as time goes on. We have to teach that early.”
For Poole, the work is about far more than the fences he mends or the crops he plants, it’s about the future he’s building. “I hope to leave this land better than I found it, so my kids, and their kids, can carry it forward,” he says. That philosophy shapes everything at P6 Farms, from the soil beneath the grass to the conversations sparked by a day spent among pumpkins and pasture. As growth and change continue to sweep across Montgomery County, Bo Poole remains steadfast in his mission: to conserve what matters, teach what’s too important to forget, and ensure that agriculture’s story is not just remembered, but lived, for generations to come.
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