Day 2: 4-H Livestock Club Summer Agriculture Tour of Virginia

Agriculture is such a diverse industry in Virginia that the travels of the Pulaski County 4-H Livestock Club needed to be shared on a day to day basis.  After our trip through the state, the Club members realized how much there is to learn about this industry and everything that is grown & raised here in our home state.  Day one was spent in Harrisonburg and Winchester.

Day 2:

After overnighting in Winchester, we moved over to Loudoun County with our first stop being at the Loudoun Fairfax Kennels.  Neil Amatt, originally from Pembrokeshire, Wales, is the Master Huntsman at the kennels. The Huntsman is the person responsible for the care, feeding and training of the foxhounds and knows the name and temperament of every hound in the pack.  Each morning the hounds are taken out for exercise in one collective group.  As we played with the hounds, Neil talked with us about his work with them and about the foxhunts in general.  

Neil Amatt, Huntsman talks about the hounds and the hunt

“Relationships between landowner and the hunt staff are critical” explains Neil.  “The Virginia hunt territory can be challenging and it is our duty to ensure that we take care of the land and the hounds and prepare the grounds properly for the hunt season.”

Next, we visited Terra Farms, owned and operated by the Rogers family.  The Rogers have farmed in Loudoun since 1907, producing grain, hay and straw which is supplied to Loudoun County Milling, also owned by the Rogers family.  Brandon Tucker, best known as “Tucker”, along with his wife Hannah Rogers Tucker, were both residents of this area for 10 years after their graduation from Virginia Tech.  They moved back to Loudoun County five years ago to help with both of these family operations.  Tucker gave us a demonstration of a newly acquired piece of equipment called a Bale Baron.  This machine is pulled behind a square baler and stacks 21 bales of hay/straw and ties them together.  They can then be picked up easily and stored in their shed that can hold up to 70,000 square bales at a time.

Tucker demonstrating how the Bale Baron works

After a BBQ lunch at Monk’s BBQ, we visited Loudoun County Milling.  It is one of the Virginia Piedmont’s few operating mills and one of the oldest.  The mill offers animal feeds for all species as well as farm supplies.  However, the mill has evolved with the surrounding development and has created a successful Landscape Supply division.  Tucker expressed how critical it is to diversify with a changing society. 

Whitestone Farm was our next stop where we met up with Scott Buchanan.  Whitestone was established in 1981 with 122 acres and 49 head of cattle just outside of Aldie, Virginia.  Since then the farm has grown substantially to over 2,000 acres of owned and leased land, and an average inventory of 1,200 head of registered Angus cattle.

“Our goal is to be the leading source of superior seedstock for our industry by producing exceptionally sound, genetically proven cattle,” stated Scott.

We were shown through the sale barn and a large meeting center with offices.  Whitestone has two sales a year with cattle having been sold all over the country as well as internationally.  They still like to get a few of their cattle in the show ring as well.

Loudoun County Milling

Our last stop of the day was at Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg.  This center has become a premier, full-service equine hospital that offers specialty care, 24-hour emergency treatment, and diagnostic services for all ages and breeds of horses.  As a campus of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, the center was one of the first university veterinary hospitals in the eastern United States to concentrate exclusively on equine medicine and research.  We toured the entire facility, seeing some of the most advanced equipment and even met quite a few of the patients currently in their care.

On the scales at the equine medical facility – all 3,000 lbs. of us!

This was a full day spent in Loudoun County.  We overnighted in Leesburg and will head south for Day 3.   

Stay tuned!