Demonstrations

By: JB Daniel, USDA-NRCS State Grazing Specialist Jerry and Judy Ingle partnered with the Black Diamond RC&D, the local Extension agent along with the Soil and Water District and NRCS to host an educational meeting emphasizing the practice of stockpiling and strip-grazing fescue over the winter. The event was held on February 19, 2019 and began with 33 participants attending […]

The grazing demonstration hosted at Ronnie Nuckols Farm as part of the Conservation Innovation Grant between VFGC and USDA-NRCS is now complete. The detailed case study summary report titled: Using Annual Forages and Improved Grazing Management to Build Soil Health and Improve System Performance, is available for download as a PDF document below. This report details how Ronnie collaborated with […]

John Fant, Colonel, US Army (Ret), returned to southwest Virginia in 2013 after a career in the military to resume the daily operations and management of the family farm. Watch this short video as John explains the challenges and opportunities he faced returning to the farm, assessing its resources then developing and implementing a plan that would make it profitable […]

Tim Tobin, of Swallow Hill Farm in Woodford, VA, is a farm demonstration cooperator with the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council as part of a USDA- NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant project. Tim will be speaking next week at the VFGC Conference in Madison, presenting a project summary on how he has used specific forage species and improved grazing management practices […]

Pasture Walk August 17, 2017 Demonstrating conversion of wildtype to novel endophyte fescue pastures for greater livestock performance and better environmental outcomes Tall fescue compared to a highly productive summer annual mix in neighboring field after 30 days of no rain. A variety of summer annuals have been donated by Halifax SWCD, Dodd’s Farm Supply, King’s Agriseeds, and CPS-South Hill […]

The Virginia Forage and Grassland Council is excited to present a short video highlighting Ronnie Nuckols discussing his journey as a grazing demonstration cooperator over the last few years. In this video, “A Step by Step Approach to Building Pasture Productivity and Soil Health,” Ronnie explains where he started, the challenge to change, how he transitioned to grazing management and […]

This publication is available as an EXCEL file only. To customize a fence budget copy  the link below to your web browser then click on the excel file, save the file to your computer then open the file. http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/ANR/ANR-257/ANR-257.html

Tim Tobin of Swallow Hill Farm in Caroline County began a grazing demonstration in partnership with the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council over a year ago. Jim Tate, Conservationist with the Hanover Caroline Soil and Water Conservation District introduced Tim to the VFGC and organized a farm visit in November 2014. At that time Tim met with Patty Johnson, Chris […]

Stockpiling forage for the winter months can be a valuable tool for farms to reduce dependence on hay, while providing cattle with a palatable and grain free substitute. As part of her work on John Fant’s farm, Katelyn recently began the process of evaluating the twelve paddocks in grazing zone one for the potential for fall stockpiling. During this process […]

The Virginia Forage and Grassland Council is currently working with John Fant who co-owns and operates Summerfield farm in Independence, Virginia. Summer Field farm is a grass-fed and grass-finished beef cattle operation. John, a veteran of the United States Army, has been farming full time since 2013, but Summerfield farm has been in John’s family since the 1970’s. Continuous grazing […]