Virginia Cattle and Dairy Expo Field Day

This Friday, Virginia Tech's Kentland Research Farm was the place to be! The 2015 Virginia Cattle and Dairy Expo Field Day brought in people from all across the state for a fun day of fellowship, education, good food, exhibits, and the Virginia Cattlemen's Association annual business meeting.

Throughout the morning, educational tours took place taking visitors to the newly completed Dairy Center for Virginia Tech with guided tours of the infrastructure. There were also tours of the Animal Science Beef feedlot and reproductive center. Department faculty showed visitors around the facility and also discussed current research going on the department. Visitors could also see of the six drone airports nationwide and how drones are supporting agricultural research. Tours were also given of the Kentland plantation home and the farm's history.

In addition, a delicious barbecue lunch was provided by the Virginia Tech Block & Bridle Club! Homestead Creamy was even on site giving out free ice cream!

Governor Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands were also there to honor the Virginia cattle business and dedicate the new diary center. Following lunch was the Virginia Cattlemen's Association annual business meeting.

Any day where I get to check out new advances in agriculture is a good day. I am so glad to be a part of such an innovative industry! I thoroughly enjoyed the tours. Steve and I were very interested to get to see the new dairy. We walked all around the facility looking at its design and even some of the plans for the new technology there. Construction was not 100% complete at the time of the field day, so I will have to go back later when they get the cattle moved in!

Through this internship I am learning how many opportunities there are in Extension to get to see new and exciting things! There are so many field days, in-services, and tours available for education and training purposes. Extension works hard to stay relevant and I am impressed with how dedicated agents are to getting research-based knowledge out to communities.

Extension needs to keep working on advertising events such as this field day to the public so everyone can be informed of what's going on in the community and how to get involved in agriculture.