2015 Winter Conference

Read Review of 2015 Conference published in Lancaster Farming 2/14/2015 [PDF]

February 3, 2015
Rockingham County Fairgrounds

Check out the Landcaster Farming article about last year’s conference – 2-14-15

Thanks to our 2015 Sponsors!

Speaker Bios

Gail Fuller

Gail Fuller of Emporia, Kansas farms over 1,700 acres where he raises 11 to 13 different cash crops, including grain sorghum, triticale, winter barley, winter oats, field peas, corn, and sunflowers and uses another 55 plant species as cover crops. Over the past decade, he has taken no-till farming to the next level on his operation, utilizing highly diverse cover crop mixtures in addition to companion crops growing in season with cash grain crops. Though years of innovative experimenting, he has enabled his operation to drastically reduce fertilizer, insecticide, and herbicide inputs. Mr. Fuller attributes his success to the mentality of “farming in nature’s image” by removing monoculture and embracing diversity within the crop rotation. In addition to the diversity he employs in the cropping practices, diversity is also employed in the form of livestock into the crop rotation.

Gerard Troisi

Gerard Troisi currently operates a private crop advisor business on 20,000 acres of farm land in central Pennsylvania, mostly integrating livestock, dairy and cash grain cropping. His formal education includes a BS in Biology and countless meetings and field days in the last 20

years. Mr. Troisi believes that in our attempt to control nature we frequently can disrupt natural systems that are of tremendous benefit to all stake holds, landowners, public as well as farmers. He believes that diverse cover crops established between annual cropping have the ability to restore resilience to our natural systems and make our lands more productive. The successful practice of soil health begins with some understanding and certainly requires planning. Mr. Troisi’s goal is to help farmers plan for better soil health. He is active in the Pennsylvania No Till Alliance (www.panotill.org/).

Phil Witmer

Phil Witmer and his wife Terry own Grazeland Dairy, Inc, a 190 cow organic dairy located at Ottobine, Va. The 180 acres at Ottobine is used for rotational grazing for the milking herd and replacements. An additional 320 acres is rented in Augusta County that provides forage and grain for the dairy. All acreage is certified organic.

Mark Deavers

Mark Deavers is the current president of the Virginia No Till Alliance. He farms in the Lacey Springs area of Rockingham County. He also provides custom no till planting and harvesting services and custom poultry house clean out and litter hauling services. Mark will share modifications he made to his no till planter to improve seeding accuracy.

Richard Fitzgerald

Richard Fitzgerald owns and operates a private consulting firm doing business as Equity Ag in Virginia. Equity Ag provides testing programs, technical service and on-farm consultations to farmers for improving nutrient cycling in cropping systems to build equity in their operations. Equity Ag also specializes in providing agronomic services to environmental agencies, NGO’s and non-profits for projects evaluating nutrient management issues. He also spent twenty years developing nutrient management plans for CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Richard grew up on a family dairy operation and liquid fertilizer business in Stuarts Draft Va. where he worked after graduating from Va. Tech in 1979 with a degree in Agronomy. Richard also worked as an Area Agronomist for the NRCS. He is a certified professional agronomist and certified nutrient management planner.

Jim Pease

Jim Pease is a Professor of Agricultural Economics in the Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics at Virginia Tech. After growing up on a small farm in western Iowa he obtained degrees from Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin, and Michigan State University. He worked 7 years in Central America as a Peace Corps volunteer and small industry researcher. After serving on the faculty at Penn State for 2 years, he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech in 1988. He conducts extension and applied research programs focused on farm policy, profitability of agricultural businesses, and water quality protection policies. With J. Novak and L. Sanders, his forthcoming textbook “Agricultural Policy in the United States: Evolution and Economics”, comes out in March 2015..

His web page can be found at: http://www.aaec.vt.edu/people/faculty/pease-james.html

2015 Winter Conference

February 3, 2015
Rockingham County Fairgrounds

Thanks to our 2015 Sponsors!

Speaker Bios

Sponsors

Exhibitors

2024 Conference Exhibitors

Contact VANTAGE

Partners

Connect with us on Facebook

2015 Winter Conference

February 3, 2015 Rockingham County Fairgrounds

Thanks to our 2015 Sponsors!

Speaker Bios

Sponsors

Exhibitors

2024 Conference Exhibitors

Contact VANTAGE

Partners

Connect with us on Facebook

February 3, 2015
Rockingham County Fairgrounds