To deliver programs in agricultural education for out-of-school adults in order to assist them to become established, or to progress in farming or other related agriculture occupations. Young Farmer members receive many benefits from their membership in local, area, state and national organizations. Not only are educational programs offered, but also social/recreational activities as well as opportunities for community service.
Posted By admin on January 14, 2015
If you are out and about collecting donations for auction items or door prizes for our State Convention we do have a donation form that you can print, fill out and give to those making a donation. I have attached it below.
Posted By admin on January 13, 2015
At our 2014 Convention during the business session a committee was appointed to reviews and make any recommended changes to our organizations bylaws. The changes will need to be reviewed and voted on by the delegation at this years convention. Copies have been emailed to all advisors to discuss directly with their membership. The proposed changes can be found in red on the document below. Copies will be available at the registration desk upon arriving for this years convention in Roanoke.
In reviewing the bylaws we also discovered that the voting at our business meetings has not been done correctly. Each association is allowed two delegates to represent the whole association. At convention anyone is welcome to attend the business meeting and participate in discussion but assigned delegates will be the only ones able to vote. This information was also provided/emailed to all advisors. We will need, at registration, the names of the delegates for each association. We will have a “reserved” section in the meeting where all delegates will be seated.
Remember when opening documents you will have to click on the link and when the second page opens, you will have to click on the link a second time. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of the officers.
Young Farmer Constitution – corrected and revised – final draft – adobe
Posted By admin on January 13, 2015
In our meeting on Saturday, we noticed that we had two mistakes on the 2015 registration form. It reads that it is the 63rd annual convention in Williamsburg. It should read the 65th annual convention in Roanoke. You may not have noticed the mistake but we thought we better correct it. New form is attached.
Also, if you are trying to open any of the forms or the newsletter on the website you have to click on the link and when the second page opens click on the link a second time. It should open in either a word or pdf document with the second click.
Posted By admin on January 9, 2015
Good Morning
Just a reminder to those coming to convention, registration forms must be postmarked by Friday, January 16. Be sure to get those sent in as soon as possible. We need a good estimate of attendees for the Friday and Saturday night banquets, Saturday lunch, and Sunday breakfast. We are meeting tomorrow (Jan 10) for the final stages of planning and to judge contests.
Looking forward to seeing everyone who is attending.
Shelia
Posted By admin on January 8, 2015
I am excited to announce we will have a tractor lease for the live auction at Convention this year. A great big Thank You to Kevin Wittig and Adam Wampler at Tractor Care for putting this together for us. Details on the tractor below. I’ve also attached a link at the bottom if you would like to look at photos, etc.
Tractor Features:
*65 HP Turbocharged 4 Cylinder Engine
*53.4 PTO HP
*4WD
*Deluxe cab with heat, AC, and Deluxe SONY CD radio
*16×16 Power Shuttle Transmission
*Two sets of rear hydraulic remotes
*Independent 540 Rear PTO
*Five year power-train warranty
Loader Features:
*Self-Leveling with a 72″ skid steer quick attach bucket
*116″ maximum lift height
*3,060 lb lift capacity at the pivot pins
Current Retail Value: $38,650
Lease details: Six months or 200 hours whichever occurs first. Six month time frame begins at bidder’s choosing, but delivery must be taken no sooner than February 8, 2015 and no later than June 1, 2015. At the end of the lease the high bidder will have right of first refusal to purchase the tractor at a discounted price to be determined.
http://lstractorusa.com/utility-tractors/xu-series/xu5065cps/
Posted By admin on December 29, 2014
Hello all,
Just a reminder to get your contest/award applications in to us ASAP. We have only received a few. Awards will only be given if we have at least two applicants for each category. The deadline is December 31 but we can extend that a little if need be. If you haven’t filled them out yet the applications are all on the website and they can be emailed to Ron Byrd at bronald9@vt.edu or to me at shelialilly@comcast.net.
Shelia Lilly
President
Posted By admin on December 29, 2014
Greetings everyone! I hope everyone has had a successful harvest season thus far.
As I sit here writing this I find it hard to believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just
right around the corner. Where has the year gone? I want to thank everyone who
attended the Summer Tours in July. We had around 70 members and/or guests in
attendance and a great day of learning and fellowship. The National Young Farmer
Institute is in Louisville, KY on December 10-13. Vice President, Jane McDonald and
myself will be attending as delegates. Ashley Craun, Secretary, will also be in attendance
representing Virginia in the Ag Communication Contest. There will be three full days of
tours and educational meetings. This will be the seventh National Institute I’ve been able
to attend. They are an excellent opportunity to see other parts of the country, meet new
people, and learn about agriculture.
The Executive Committee hopes you can join us for the 2015 State Convention at the Holiday Inn
Tanglewood in Roanoke, Virginia. The dates are January 30-February 1. We will be extremely busy over the next
three months planning and putting on the finishing touches. Our tour stops will include Homestead Creamery, the
dairy farm of one of the Creamery owners along with their Seven Oaks Landscape & Hardscape business. I am also
excited to announce Dr. David Kohl as our guest speaker for the Saturday evening banquet. Don’t forget to get your
applications in for the Farm Business Management, Ag Stewardship, Outstanding Young Farmer, Diversification,
Outstanding Young Agribusiness Person awards along with the grower contests applications. All applications can
be found on the Young Farmer website, vayoungfarmer.org. We also need people to fun for State Office. I look
forward to seeing all of you at convention.
Thank you for the privilege of being a member of the Executive Committee for the past two years and being
your President this year. Young Farmers is a great organization. I’ve learned so much about agriculture from
everyone and met amazing people from all over the state. I look forward to being a member for many years to come.
I wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas. See you at State Convention!
President, Shelia Lilly
Posted By admin on November 21, 2014
Posted By admin on November 21, 2014
Posted By admin on July 14, 2014
Our Summer Tour is less than two weeks away. The date is Thursday, July 24 and we will meet at Spotswood High School in Penn Laird as a group and depart from there. Registration will begin at 8:30, we will be leaving the school at 9:15 for our first tour stop. Lunch will be at Grand Caverns park and will be catered by John Long/The Catering Company. Lunch is being sponsored by Farm Credit of the Virginias. A head count for lunch is needed by this Friday, July 18th. Get with your advisor or you can email me at shelialilly@comcast.net to sign up.
Tour stops are below. Note a change (from what is in the newsletter) to the afternoon tour. The owner of Black Bear Composting had a conflict arise so we had to find a second location.
River Hill Farms
River Hill Farms, owned by the Rodes family, is a combination dairy, poultry, beef cattle, and custom harvesting operation, farming 600 acres. They have approximately 150 dairy cows, raise 270,000 turkeys yearly for Cargil, and grow their own canola, oilseed, and soybeans to use for biodiesel as an alternative fuel source. The biodiesel produced on the farm is used in the majority of the farm equipment. The poultry operation is video monitored by using a computer or smart phone. They have implemented burning wood chips and poultry litter for an alternative heat source for the poultry units. GPS is utilized for precision farming, auto steer, and field mapping. River Hill Farms is the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce 2013 Farm Family Stewardship Award winner.
Shreckhise Nurseries
