I work out of and live in Nelson County—one of the most beautiful areas of the state! My wife, Dana, our two sons Hayden (9) and Daniel (7) and I live on our family farm, Deer Creek Farm, where I was raised. The rolling and sometimes mountainous terrain of Nelson County is best suited to cattle and sheep and fruit trees. While we do not have fruit trees on our farm, Nelson County is a leader in production of fresh apples and peaches. Nelson is also a high ranking county for vineyards and wineries. Another business that has really taken off in Nelson County is micro-breweries. The county also has a large wholesale nursery. There’s a lot more about Nelson County, click here http://www.nelsoncounty.com/
When I am not working for Farm Bureau, I enjoy working on our farm raising registered Simmental and SimAngus cattle. We sell bulls and replacement heifers to other cattlemen. We send the steers and cull heifers through the Virginia Retained Ownership Program, administered by Virginia Tech in coordination with Iowa State University. The cattle are fed at several participating feedyards in southwest Iowa near the Nebraska border, and are harvested in Iowa. In addition to the cattle, the only crops we raise are grass and trees. Over the years, I have installed several conservation projects with cattle water tanks and implemented a rotational grazing program.
Oh, by the way, we have a small flock of commercial sheep and one Italian Maremma guard dog. That is our new project and I am still working, and sometimes get frustrated trying to integrate them into our cattle system.
