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Please contact John Fike at jfike@vt.edu or Gabriel Pent at gpent@vt.edu regarding these events. Are you interested in starting a pasture-finished beef operation or improving your existing forage-finished beef operation? If so, consider attending one of the upcoming Pasture-Finished Beef Production Meetings held at three convenient locations around Virginia. These workshops are part of a collaborative effort between Virginia Tech, […]

Sign up now for the 2020 Novel Tall Fescue Renovation Workshop hosted by Virginia Tech and the Alliance for Grassland Renewal. Remember when Dr. Dan Undersander reminded us of the danger of being penny wise and pound foolish at the 2020 VFGC winter conferences? Specifically, Dr. Undersander mentioned how novel endophyte tall fescue can often increase cow conception rates and […]

Demonstrating conversion of wildtype to novel endophyte fescue pastures for greater livestock performance and better environmental outcomes Project Background  Tall fescue is the predominant forage species used in animal production systems across the upper Southeast, but it is the host for a fungus that produces alkaloids that are toxic to livestock. Environmental concerns relative to pasture systems may have strong […]

As a farmer in Virginia and a VFGC member, I’m sure you met David Fiske. Over the last 18 years, David served as a dedicated Board member of the VFGC and Superintendent of the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center. So many of us benefitted from David’s service and dedication to Virginia agriculture as participants in research farm tours, […]

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 […]

David Allen Fiske, (age 59) of Steeles Tavern Virginia died unexpectedly from a sudden illness on Friday, November 16, 2018. He was born on September 14, 1959 in Charlottesville Virginia. David spent his younger years on the family farm and surrounding community near Aldie, Virginia. David was a loving son, brother, uncle, dedicated agriculturalist, community volunteer and caring friend to […]

Stockpiling fescue in late summer and fall offers a great opportunity to extend the grazing season well past our growing season and decrease your hay feeding days. As you know, winter feed costs are the largest expense item in the annual operating budget for a commercial cow-calf operation.  Many farmers over the years have learned to stockpile fescue in the […]

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 […]

Bellevue Farm Charles and Robert Drumheller Bellevue Farm was honored by the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council (VFGC) as the 2018 Outstanding Forage Producer of the Year. The farm is located in Swoope, within the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It is owned and operated by Charles and Robert Drumheller, whose family has owned the farm since the mid-1900s. Charles took […]

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 […]