Virginia Tech

We went to four different labs at Virginia Tech. The first lab was a tissue culture lab. Tissue culture is done to produce plants much more quickly than seeds. Bananas are a fruit that must be grown through tissue culture because they are sterile. They have done many projects with potatoes and potato genome sequencing. Virginia Tech made the specimen to sequence.

Next we went to the plant pathology lab and got to work through some pathology issues. It was really fun to try to figure out what was wrong with each specimen without very much information about the specimen. Some of the specimens allowed us to run a virus test to see if the problem is possibly a virus.

Then we went to the insect collection and saw A LOT of different insects. There were over 700,000 specimens in the collection. The collection is currently at Price Fork Research Center but is going to be moved to another location soon.

Finally we went to the nematode lab and saw how they separated the nematodes from the soil. They have a semi-automatic elutriator that separates the soil from the nematodes. They also have a desktop version scanning electron microscope that allows them to see the nematodes up close and study them.

Potato Farm, David Long

There are 45,000 acres of potatoes grown on the eastern shore. Red Skin potatoes get the best price. Potato chips are sliced thinner and have a higher specific gravity. The superior white potatoes take 95 days to mature. 100 pounds of potatoes makes 12 pounds of chips. They plant the last week of February to early March when the soil temperature reaches 45*F to start growing. The potatoes are harvested the first week of June to the last week of June. 28 days after the vines are killed they let the potatoes sit in the soil to gain skin. 1 acre of potatoes cost $3,200. Diseases are the biggest problem with potatoes. Late blight and the Colorado Potato Beetle are two of the main diseases. Having crop insurance is useful but the government or the agency always gets the better end of the deal.

Valley View Farm

Mr .Phillips tour was my favorite tour of the entire e-term. He knew more about what he was talking about than anyone we met. He is able to work a full time job, be sustainable on his farm, and have a pasture that is so thick you can barely walk through them. He allows 3 acres per cow/calf pair. He doesn't want to be sustainable, he want to be better to sustainable. He has won several forage awards. Instead of trying to increase his herd he has been decreasing his herd to a sustainable number to allow the cows to not need feed through the winter.

He does not sell any hay off of his farm, he keeps all of his forages on his farm for his cows. Rolling out hay is better than keeping it in a feeder because the hay can help reseed the pasture. He practices strip grazing and rotational grazing. He works all of his cows by himself with his one person operated head chute.

There have been no cows bought in 25 years. Mr. Phillips had his own definitions for higher education degrees. B.S. (Bull Shit), M.S. (more of the same), Ph.D. (piled higher and deeper). He doesn't like a disc hay bine he likes the regular old fashion hay bine. He has a bull that breeds everything and does not use fly tags. This man is a genius!!

Mountain View Farm and Vineyard

Mountain View Farm and Vineyard is located in Roanoke,Va and is run by Andy and Megan Siebel. The farm was purchased in the early 1960's. They have 450 acres of grapes, pasture, and hay land. They had dairy but switched to beef and then in 2000 put in the grapes. Megan manages all of the labor, chemical spray, and books for the vineyard. They have 100-120 cow/calf pairs that they A.I. with Angus and breed back to Hereford. They have a total of 20 acres in grapes that produce between 100-80 acres of fruit.

They have 8 different varieties of grapes. The start-up cost per acre is $25,000 and make no money in the first 3-5 years. Finally at 7 years out they break-even. Each vine has 60 feet of roots. They have a large perimeter fence to attempt to keep wildlife out but it doesn't always work. They are not an organic operation and they have contracts for their grapes. The cows do winter graze the  vineyard area.

This was a totally different aspect of agriculture that was very interesting to see. Especially how they harvest the crops.

PolyFace Farm

Polyface Farm was a very interesting visit. Joel Salatin does not use any pesticides, herbicides, dewormers, or antibiotics. He has non-hybrid chickens that live in egg mobiles and follow his cows around to keep them from getting worms. The egg mobiles and cows are moved daily. He has 2 houses and 400 layers in each house. He claims that he can collect eggs from 50 chickens in the same time he can collect eggs from 800 chickens. He also is a self proclaimed "Lunatic".

He has 5 miles of water lines run to water the chickens in the egg mobiles as well as the hogs, and broilers in movable huts. The cow manure did not look healthy is was very green and slimy where it should have been brown and thicker. He feeds non-GMO feed to all of his animals but 15-20% of their feed comes from the pasture. During the winter he puts his layers, rabbits, and pigs in the hoop houses and then uses the bedding from that house to plant his vegetables in the summer. Joel Salatin claims that pink eye, black leg, pneumonia, mastitis, and milk fever are all genetic diseases (they are not in any way, shape or, form genetic)!!!!!!!! He says that out of his 1,000 cows (we maybe saw 25) he only has 2 cases of pink eye each year! He dogged Tyson, Purdue, and Pilgram's Pride chicken.

A cow day is the amount of food one cow will eat in a day. Most average 80 cow days per acre but he get 400 per acre and he has not planted or fertilized in 50 years (no way in hell this is possible). He has a total of 3000 chickens and the broilers are moved everyday. He also feeds his predators and believes that a grey owl will pick up a opossum to save his chickens. The only way to farm is with a "Portable Farm"  (here's where the self proclaimed name comes in real handy). Land value has increased tremendously over time and the land on his farm is worth $8,000 an acre. He only feeds hay 40 days a year where the average is 120. Horses and mules tore up the fields ruined the dirt and now his free range pigs are going to fix it. His death losses are 3-4% for the layers/ 1% for the cows and pigs/ and 6% for the broilers.

Every farmer is responsible for their own locality and we should not worry about the rest of the world, they can take care of themselves.

So this farm did nothing but make me mad and prove how many idiots there are in this world that believe his crap. There is nothing about this farm that I could take back home and it was a waste of money. There is no way he makes a profit off of his farm, maybe off of the farm tours though. Seeing people that wanted to have his autograph and shake his hand even fueled the fire more.

Novozymes

The company goes by: Better Business, Cleaner Environment, and Better Lives. They are the world leader in industrial enzymes and microorganisms. They have half of the world market in enzymes and microorganisms. They employee 5,200 people worldwide. The company is $1.8 billion company with 14% going to R&D. They have 700 products in 130 countries in 30 industries. 60% of their business is related to agriculture. Their three big sections are BioAg, BioPharma, and Biologicals. They do 15 repetitions for each study that they do in the air conditioned, climate controlled greenhouse. They do not do field tests all studies are done in the lab. They have no transgenic plants and all of their products are general use.

This business was somewhat confusing for me but it was an interesting concept behind the research. The random placement in the greenhouse was something else that I was unsure of. Although the plants are in a trial there is no research on how they will preform in the environment without the protection of a greenhouse.

Houff's Seed and Fertilizer

This business started as an unhappy dairy farmer that did not like the quality of the fertilizer and seed company. The farmer started fertilizing for himself through Allied Fertilizer. In the early 80's and 90's the fertilizer business grew and they started a trucking business to help haul the fertilizer. There is a railroad right behind the fertilizer plant so they began to use rail cars to haul as well because it was so much cheaper but the quality is much worse (1 week = 3 weeks). They started retailing Pioneer Seed in the late 80's - early 90's. They are the only distributor for Pioneer in the state. They serve 3 counties (Rockingham, Rockbridge, and Augusta). They have 250 direct customers but serve many others as a distributor. Danny Clindan is the Seed Manager at the plant. The deliver to the companies within 24 hours of the order hitting his desk. The mother plant is in Laurinburg, NC.

They started doing seed treatments 4 years ago and now treat over 35,000 bags of seed each year. 7 years ago only 2% of soybeans were treated and now that is up to 80%. The treater can run through one cycle in 10 minutes. They can do up to 2 trailer loads a day. They store all of the liquid fertilizer outside in big tanks and store all of the chemicals inside. The average field size that they cover is 7.5 acres. They are starting to move into the dry fertilizer business and already have a bio-solids business.

They also store salt for VDOT in large buildings. The farms do not have to pay for the bio-solids, the plant that is getting rid of them pays to have them taken away and disposed of. The application rate depends of the type of field being sprayed and the crop that is on that field.

This business shows how one business can lead to another and then another. There are always opportunities you just have to go for it.

Cargill

Farm Tour:

There are 180 contract farms with Cargill which equals 22,000,000 billion turkeys. The barns are 63 ft. x 704 ft. and each barn holds 25,500 birds in each house. To make each pound of turkey it takes 2 pounds of feed. When the birds are first brought in they are placed in conventional ring systems and there is 400 birds per ring. All of the houses are equipped with automatic waters and feeders. The birds are given the entire house to roam at 6 weeks old and considered mature at 13 weeks. They use generators as back up electricity. They run heat, lights, circulation fans, and the automatic waters and feeders. They keep the humidity below 60%. Every house has an alarm system that goes off if the temperature gets too low or too high or if there is a power outage. Each building cost $550,000 to compete and the farmers are set up on a 15 year plan. The temperature decreases as the turkeys age and with tom turkeys they bring the temperature in the house down much faster. There is 5 inches of litter put down in the house at the start of the cycle and before entering the house everyone must step in a powered for of bleach that works better than the liquid. The turkeys are started on a 30% protein feed and are given their vaccinations at the hatchery and then further vaccinated through the water. The toms are sold to a company in North Carolina. The hens will kill a tom if they are mis-sexed at the hatchery. They get 4 hours of darkeness a day. There are shock wires above the feeders and waters that keep the turkeys from roosting on them. They compost the litter at the open end while the turkeys are contained to half of the barn during the first 5 weeks and all new litter is placed at the brood end of the barn. They use pine shavings and peanut hulls for bedding. Every 6 cycles the litter is replaced completely. There is a 95% survival rate and there are only 4 antibiotics that they are allowed to use on the turkeys. All employees and growers have to go through welfare training. On average the babies are $1.30 each from the hatchery.

Processing Plant:

There are two main brands made at this processing plant (P18), Shady Brook and Honey Suckle White. The plant is 70 years old and the plant manager has been with the company for 39 years. There are 800 farms that the plant receives birds from and the furthest one is in North Carolina. The plant processes 20,000 toms a day and the target live weight is 40 pounds. They process 10,000 heavy hens a day and that target live weight is 23 pounds. They process 50,000-60,000 small hens a day and the target live weight is 15 pounds. There are 19 different languages spoken at the plant and people from 52 different countries. There are USDA officials on site along with a doctor for all emergencies. The hens are killed with a 49 volt shock and the toms are given a CO2 stun.

This was one of my favorite tours of the entire e-term. Everyone always makes it seem as though processing plants and poultry barns are cruel facilities but that was not the case. The workers were all professional and made the process very humane. I liked being able to see the entire process first hand and not having to go off of the assumptions. It was also reassuring to know that anyone harassing a bird (alive or dead) was terminated immediately.

Eastern Shore AREC

At this research facility we learned many different things about the eastern shore area. They have large operations in vegetables, nurseries, grain, and cotton. There are 15-20 different crops commonly grown. There are many graduate students that take courses on campus and work on their field studies during the summer. Mark Reiter is the nutrient manager, Steve Rideout is the plant pathologist, Dr. Henry Wilson is the weed science specialist who just retired after 46 years. 80% of the farms in Virginia are K Cl deficient. The research facility has 226 acres total, 100 acres are tillable and 2 acres are organic. In the lab they use a microscope the most to preform plant pathology and most of the research for the plant pathology is done by a technician.

They use certain selective media for certain pathogens. They also have a colony counter to count bacteria. There is also a rapid test  that has a dip stick reader. There is a soil fertility lab also at the research facility. They can run a soil test for farmers like Virginia Tech does but the research facility only does it for research purposes. They have a -80* freezer to freeze cultures instead of trying to keep them going until they are needed. There are no plant material or soil in the molecular lab (Clean Lab). They use a field mapping system derived from Helena that send an electrical current from one probe to the furthest two outer probes.

Soil samples are taken from the different soil textures that are taken every second. Kyle Sturgis is a Helena representative. Helena is a chemical sales company that also scouts fields and takes soil samples. They use GPS and satellite imagery.

This was a very informative tour. It gave me the opportunity to talk with Kyle about a possible job after graduation as well as prospective grad school field studies. I really enjoyed hearing about the different crops that were grown on the eastern shore.

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

Dr. Barry Flinn gave us a tour of the Institute. He is the Sustainable Renewable Resource Supervisor. At the Institute they use a knowledge base approach including mechanical engineering, polymers, motor sports, and agriculture. The Institute houses the Piedmont Governor's School, adjunct facility from Virginia Tech, and Ph.D students research. They have done many research projects including high value horticulture/forestry crop and bio based product development as well as development and genetic enhancement of biofuels and bioenergy crops. They did research on tomatoes, day lilies, strawberries, azaleas, hellebores, goji, impatiens, and miscanthus.


The Institute makes all of their own media and it goes through the autoclave. They also have a smart table that takes pictures everyday of each plant to make a growth curve. They can analyze the data from the smart table without being present.





They work in partnership with Dan River Plants. Dan River Plants has been open 8 months now and have so many orders they are struggling to fill them. They sell plants in stage 2-4 to customers.

Seeing all of the different variations at both labs was very interesting. Also getting to see the start to finish product was neat. I enjoyed seeing their greenhouse and the new technology, especially the movable tables that you can push and they will roll to the other side to make an aisle where it is needed.

Hammock Dairy

The Hammock Dairy is a 3rd generation dairy in Chatham, Va. They currently have 700 head but are looking to increase to 1,200. They own all of  the land that they use for crops. They have 800-900 acres for corn silage and double crop with Marshall Rye, Oats, or Wheat. Mr. Hammock uses vertical tillage when necessary but tries to no-till as much as possible. They sow round up ready corn and B.T. corn.

They like to have a 5 year return on investment at most but would like to have a 2 or 3 year. He doesn't agree with the digester at the Vanderhyde Dairy. Mr. Hammock put in center pivot irrigation systems last year but did not need to use them. He also put in a 10 acre pond that took two years to pass regulations and required many permits. The pond cost $35,000. He says that having irrigation is better than having an insurance policy. They are currently participating in a study with Virginia Tech to see population rates of different varieties of corn. To plant each acre of corn it costs between $300-350. He can feed 1 cow off of 1 acre for an entire year and averages 12 tons per acre. There are 12 full time employees on the farm not including Mr. Hammock and his younger brother.
In the milk parlor they pre-dip, then strip the cows, and finally wipe the cows down and this process allows 1 minute of let down time for the cow before they place the milker on. They can milk 100 cows in an hour with 3 employees. They milk 3 times a day and are typically milking 21 out of the 24 hours each day. They started a coop with several of the other farmers in the area and it now has 14 members and they ship out 26 loads of  milk every day. They have the highest quality milk in the U.S. and the higher the quality the longer the shelf life is. The coop also sends 25 loads of milk a week to a Mexican Cheese Plant. In April Hammock Dairy made $27/ 100 wt. and in May they sold 1.5 million lbs of milk. They scrape the barns 3 times a day and change the bedding and clean waters twice a week. They are currently in the process of switching from sawdust to sand. While we were there we did get to see Mr. Hammock pull a calf also.

The Hammock's operation is very neat to see how they feed all of their cows off of their own land without having any extra expense from renting land. It was interesting to see how different dairy farmers think and see the different tasks associated with each different farm if going into an agriculture field where you are required to work with the farmer on a day to day basis. There are somethings that I saw/heard that I did not completely agree but everyone has their own opinion and their own way of doing things.

Valley Bee Supply

Valley Bee Supply is the only store front bee keeping facility in the state of Virginia. However, there is a big franchise company in Chatham, VA. They manufacture most of their wooden equipment.

They use one of 7 machines in the world to make the drawers. They say the reason for so many colonies collapsing is because of systemic pesticides (nicotinoids). Honey bees are not native to North America, they were imported in 1620 at Jamestown. There are several different breeds of honey bees. The African bee is more protective over hive and more presistent. In most hives there is one queen, 200 drones, and 50,000 worker bees which are sterile females.

21 days after an egg is laid it becomes a worker bee unless it is fed royal jelly for the entire pupal cycle which creates a queen bee. The hives should be checked once a day and they should look for the queen as well as eggs, larva, and pupa. They harvest the nectar and evaporate out the water to make honey. A box full of honey will weigh about 90 pounds. The bees wax is secreted from underneath the abdomen then the bee chews it up and spits it back out. Honey can not be fed to children under the age of 1 because there are botulism spores present which can effect the child's immune system. The hives are made out of white pine. They sell the pieces separate, assembled, and painted. The black combs show the eggs and larva better than the white combs.

They sell their products online and through ebay to all of the U.S. including Hawaii. The government does not have much involvement in bee keeping so there are not many regulations. They offer a bee keeping class on Saturdays and Fred teaches a class at Blue Ridge Community College. The business was opened 3.5 to 4 years ago with a start up cost of $10,000. They now have an inventory of over $500,000 and there is an increasing number of bee keepers in the area since they opened.


This operation was interesting especially the finances with only starting out with $10,000 and now having an inventory of $500,000 in only 4 years. This company is a well known company and it did not take them long to become well known. Although this is not something that I would like to make a career out of it is amazing to see how it is done and how the bees work together and honor the queen.

Eastern BioPlastics

Eastern BioPlastics is a company that uses chicken feathers to reduce the amount of plastic used to produce certain products. The president is Sunny Myerhan. First they pick all of the heads and other body parts out of the feathers, then they wash the feathers to get all of the blood off of them because if the blood and other bio-solids are not removed the feathers start decomposing very quickly. The feathers are then dried to less than 1-2%. The quill is the hardest part to cut up and grind. Each feather is washed for 15 minutes. The company is bio based but not compostable. On half days they go through 2,000 - 2,500 lbs. of feathers. The pelleted products have more feathers per 100 weight than the flake products. Feathers don't burn so it is better to have building products that termites don't eat. The extruder melts incoming plastic and adds in additives and feathers. The flakes are similar to oil dry (absorbent pellets). They are good for oil spills in water because the feathers are lighter than water and oil is on the top of the water. Having too much moisture in the feathers before they are processed pockets of steam will be created. Once the feathers are pelletized they are cooled off as quickly as possible with water, the pellets are then dried off as soon as possible to at least 5% moisture or less. All of the water is recycled and reused. They can make 4,000 lbs of plastic pellets in one hour. They make pads from feathers alone after they are cleaned and they are used to soak up oil. Pads are cleaned and reused (reclaimed), the pellets are not. They do not want the oil absorbent to be biodegradable because the oil will leak back into the soil if placed in a land fill. The company is selling to large businesses and to the port right now but hope to market their products once they get a larger variety of products. The products have been tested in local shops though. They have 5 patents on their products.

Back Home at the Farm

Gary and Lynn Hess own Back Home at the Farm. The farm has been in the family since 1959, which at the time the farm was a cow calf operation. Then in 1978 they had a wholesale greenhouse. In 1995, shrubs became a retail operation on Route 11. They do not do landscaping but they do stay open for Christmas sells. They now have 100 brood cows and participate in cross fencing and self watering projects. They are a seasonal greenhouse/agro-tourism business that house a 6 acre corn maze, a 60 foot underground slide.

They have many field trips from pre-k to 1st graders and more tours in the fall than the spring. There are about 5,000 kids that come through each year and over 25,000 people each year. This is the first agro-tourism farm in Rockingham County and needed a special use permit to start the business.


With the field trips the students wanted a pumpkin patch more than the corn maze. They grow 9-10 acres of pumpkins each year and still have to buy in more pumpkins. They have begun to do more online advertising and less advertising on the radio and in the newspaper. Each year they have a different maze design and is designed by a company out of Utah. It was very hard to find insurance but once they did find some it costs them $3-4,000 each year just for the company. They report each accident in case anything becomes of it.

This was very interesting to hear about and the slide was sooo much fun! Ferrum really needs one! This is a way for people to continue to do what they love but make money at the same time.

Mt. Crawford Creamery

The farm was purchased in 1924 and the dairy was started in 1952.

 They have 68 cows that are milked twice a day. They have Holestein and Holestein/ Jersey cross. They make milk, butter, and yogurt onsite. Th day that we were there they were churning butter.

The parlor is a Double 6 Haring Bone that can milk 12 at a time. They added the take offs in 1989 and still use weight jars that help when cows are sick and milk needs to be dumped. They keep hand written notes in spiral notebooks. They process as much of the milk as possible and ship the rest off. They watch heat cycles to breed cows and use A.I. unless they have a hard time catching a first time heifer, then they use a clean up bull. They keep the calves separate until they are 90 days old and keep on milk as long as possible then switch to milk replacer. They stay on the cow for 2-3 days. After 90 days old they group them to get use to eating in herds, they are placed in counter slope barns that are scraped 3 times a week. Any extra milk that they have to sell they get paid for a class 3 or 4 price which is determined by the state milk commission so they try to have as little extra as possible.

This was an ideal small family farm. It was interesting to hear the history of the farm and the milk was amazing. I really enjoyed seeing all of the different local products from other farms in the area.

Powell Farm

The Soil Conservationist put in a cost share project at the Powell farm to fence out a pond that lead to a creek. They agreed to leave a 35 foot buffer and were able to get 100% cost share.

There was a solar panel installed to run the well because to run electricity to the well it was going to cost $25,000.

The well pumps water to a resivoire that can last for 3-4 days if the power goes out and then the water goes to fill up the troughs. The well is 300 feet deep and can pump 8.5-9 gallons per minute. The type of pump put in is more durable than an electric pump. The troughs used are Ritchie troughs.

The project was engineer designed with government specifications. There is a 10 year contract and if it is not maintained the farmer pays the remaining amount based on the years left in the contract. Richmond picks 30 clients a year from each county to be spot checked. The agency that does the checking gives the farmers a 2 month notice before they come so the farmer will not be checked without fair warning. If an emergency arises or the pump arises the farmers are exempt from the contract until the troughs are okay to be used again. There are no restrictions within the buffer zone so the farmer can mow, or spray pesticides or herbicides. Mr. Powell was able to tell the agency what he wanted and they designed the project to fit his wants and needs. Augusta County receives $1.1-1.3 million each year. This year all of the money was spent by March with a fiscal year starting July 1. The agency also helps pay for cover crops and helps set up rotational grazing systems. By 2025 they are hoping to have all of the animals fenced out of the creeks.

This gave me many job options. I do feel as though all cost share projects should be under the same specifications instead of individualized projects dependent on the farmers wants, especially when 100% cost share is involved. I also feel that the contracts should be better watched and monitored.

White Oak Lavender Farm

White Oak Lavender Farm has 9,000 lavender plants along with horses, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, and  George the Turkey.

They need 12-15 thousand plants to fill all of their orders. The oldest lavender on the farm is 9 years old and they started the agro-tourism 5 years ago. Normally they do not lose over 10 plants a year, however this past year is much different because of the weather (lost 1,000 plants). There is no crop insurance available for lavender crops. The flowers are harvested in the summer.

The lavender therapy products are dried, some products are distilled to remove the essential oil. They make over 100 bath and body products so they use a lot of essential oil. Lavender comes in different size shrubs and in different colors. It can live for as long as 20 years and reaches maturity by the 3rd year. The shrubs can vary in size from 1 foot to 4.5 feet. They also take cuttings from the larger plants to make plants to sell for retail crops as well as plant new crops for themselves. They can get 200 cuttings from a single mother plant. The plants are pruned in the fall and in the spring any dead material from the winter is cut away. The plants do the best in full sun with good drainage and a pH of 7-7.25. The retail store has bouquets, single blooms, bath and body products, lavender flavored water and ice cream, actual plants, and u-pick. George the Turkey was a turkey that was pardoned by President Obama and is now 2.5 years old and over 50 pounds. They have a labryinth that many cancer patients use as well as people that have anxiety.

The company keeps records of the lavender for the products that are used as culinary. They have a debudding machine that is the 3rd proto type of any debudding machine.

When distilling the best oil is accumulated in the first 30 minutes. Essential oil should be stored in a dark glass at room temperature.

This is very meaningful to me because my aunt battled cancer and lavender really helped her through her hardest times. Seeing all of the calming effects of the farm was amazing.

Whitefall Farms

A.J. Nuckols farms beef, poultry, switchgrass, a pumpkin patch, and use to grow tobacco. Switchgrass is his main focus. It is a perennial crop that like hot and dry weather. It normally takes 2-3 years for a stand to mature and be profitable.  Mr. Nuckols grows a total of 50 acres of switchgrass and cuts it for hay.  On a good year he can get 3 cuttings out of a stand.

When putting down nitrogen if 0 lbs are put down there is 2-3 tons of biomass produced, 100 lbs of nitrogen produce 5 tons of biomass. Typically switchgrass is baled in January but this past year he was able to wait until March because of the harsh winter. He also plants it in his pasture to strip graze. Switchgrass is really good for wildlife as well.

The grass clumps allow smaller young such as quails to make it through the plots. Some say that it is not necessary to ever fertilize switchgrass but Mr. Nuckols thinks that it is necessary. He does have research plots for Virginia Tech that receive no nitrogen. There are 12 plots, each are 1 acre. There are 4 repetitions of 3 different types. All of the borders of the plots are mowed and the plots are harvested in January.

This information is suited for someone who wants to go into the agronomy field.  It will be useful to farmers when trying to feed cattle with a perennial crop.

Vanderhyde Dairy

The Vanderhyde Dairy is an operation run by 3 generations. They milk 1,200 cows 3 times a day and have about 2,400 head on the farm. The cows that are milking are producing 83 lbs a piece/ day. They have a total of 11,000 lbs of milk produced per day and fill 10 trailers a week. All cows have electronic ID's that are read as they enter the parlor. The Vanderhyde's have a carousel milking system.

The weight of the cows and the concrete is 52 tons. The carousel has 36 stalls, they can milk 250 cows in one hour and the parlor runs 18-20 hours a day. There are 27 employees at the dairy and each milking cycle only requires 4 people, 3 in the parlor and 1 to get the cows up. The dairy also has a methane digester. The manure from the alleys, which is scraped every 30 minutes, flows to the holding tank for the digester by gravity. The holding tank is used for fermentation and has the same microbes as a rumen.

The manure must stay in the digester system for 30 days. The solid material is separated from the liquid and the solids make the bedding for the cows and is almost pathogen free. Once it makes it to the digester, which runs 24 hours a day, the digester turns the methane removed in the fermentation process into energy. It produces enough energy to power the entire dairy as  well as 100 other households.



The dairy sells 300,00 kWatts per month at $0.03. The digester requires 44 gallons a month and have to be changed every month. The spark plugs are changed in the machine every other month. The machine was started in 2009 and now has 26,000 hours on it. The dairy industry in the state of Virginia produces $1.2 billion every year.

This was one of the most informational tours we went on. It was nice to see someone that was self-sustained. This combines not only the animal side of agriculture but the crop side as well and the energy efficiency. Seeing how there are many new technological advances in the dairy world it would be a very satisfying job to help dairy farmers through a government agency.

Pickett's Harbor Farm

The farm was started with fruit trees, mainly peaches, then it moved to tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, black berries, corn, sweet potatoes, butter beans, and acorns. It has been in business for 20 years The family does most of the work because school kids do not want to work and the migrant workers are too much trouble to get. There aren't many peaches grown in this area so having them on the farm is a novelty.

 He is a bee keeper as well. The help that does work is required to say "yes sir, no sir, please, & thank you". The farm participates with the senior discount program as well as WIC and EBT. They sell the products at Virginia Beach and on the farm but the farm sells are better. The can profit $43,560 out of 1 acre. The entire farm includes 225 acres and they can make 80% of their income using only 10% of their land. All of their land is irrigable.

The farm is also in the process of being GAP certified (Good Agriculture Practices). They work with ODU to help provide Food Banks with potatoes. ODU students come and pick the potatoes, pay for the potatoes, and deliver them to the Food Bank.

This farm was very relevant to a possible career to be able to help a farmer feed his community as well as being able to provide food to the local food shelter. Also seeing how he used very little of the total farm to produce the majority of his income was very cool.

Cherrystone Aquaculture Farm

The Cherrystone Aquaculture Farm is one of the largest aquaculture farms in the world. It has been in business for 31 years and is owned by the Ballard family. The President of the company is 31 years old and in the Ballard family. The business had not produced oysters for several years and last year they brought oysters back into production.

Every winter all of the pipes in the hatchery are taken out and replaced to prevent bacteria from harming the next year's production. They produce 65-100 million clams every year. The nursery process for clams takes 8 weeks and it takes 10 days for larva to become clams. They are kept in shallow beds for 10-12 weeks. They are kept in sea beds for 18-30 months until mature. They package under personal and private labels and are cooled at 45*F.

The clams are delivered within 24 hours of harvest. Each spawn is worth $500,000. There are 4 different sizes of clams (25/lb.) button, (15/lb.) small neck, (10/lb.) middle neck, and (5/lb.) large neck. The oysters are contained for their entire life. Cherrystone sells six different varieties (4 farm raised and 2 wild). They remain in bags and racks in the ocean once big enough. It takes a lot more room to grow oysters than clams.

I had not had any experience with oyster and clam operations before so seeing how they grew the clams and oysters was really neat. I doubt I will go into a career or take classes that this will be relevant to.