Born and raised in central Virginia, my agricultural background started early in raising tobacco on the family farm without a cow in sight. When tobacco wasn’t viable any longer, I moved into horticulture at a local wholesale tree nursery where my interest in plant life began to grow. Later, I worked as a professional firefighter for over 10 years while growing produce for retail customers as well as restaurants and convenience stores. After being introduced to cattle by a neighbor I decided to buy a group of eight sim-angus heifers. A few months after, I decided to expand a bit and bought another 160 head of cow-calf pairs and leased several farms in the area. I left the fire service shortly thereafter to raise cattle full time. I began to realize quickly these high input cattle wouldn’t cut it. I started intensively grazing our farms, taking away a lot of inputs and the cattle started falling to pieces. That led me on the search for cattle that could handle my environment and management. I landed on South Polls and have never looked back. From the cattle to the people, this breed is the best we’ve found. My wife Ruth and I live in Appomattox VA with our two sons and daughter.

Bent Creek Farm is nestled in the rolling hills of south-central VA. After growing up on a dairy farm in Lancaster PA, and several years in construction, my wife Sherri & I purchased this VA farm in 1995. Within a few months we began grazing Angus, Herford and Charolais cattle. Over the years our 7 children helped turn the low-quality pastures of the farm into a beautiful, diverse landscape of grasses and forbs. We went from several years of weekly pasture rotations to now daily moves of mostly Angus, Red Angus and South Poll cattle. Soil life is a very important aspect of healthy farming practices. Our cattle are selected for natural resistance to parasites, and are able to gain well on a fescue-based forage with a nice diversity of many other warm and cool season plants. Fresh clean water and daily pasture moves help our cattle enjoy life and are very comfortable around people. The base of our cattle enterprise is cow/calf pairs. We fence-line wean all of our calves and finish out only the top females as replacements, the rest are sold as stockers or finished and sold as grass finished beef. We prefer early maturing, small to medium framed cows at around 1,100 lbs.

We are on a mission to improve the health of our soil, our animals, and our community. Everything begins with the land. Our family has been farming in this corner of Snow Camp since the early 1800s, and the passion to steward this land runs deep. After years as a tobacco farm then a commercial beef operation, we decided there had to be a better way to care for our land. In 1998, we discovered rotational grazing. It was a turning point for our soil and our family. Our cattle move from pasture to pasture eating grasses and naturally fertilizing the soil with their manure. Pastures are given plenty of time to rest and recover before the herd is reintroduced. Rotational grazing lets us get out of the way and allow God’s creation to flourish the way it's supposed to.

At Ellett Valley Beef Co. we’ve been raising beef cattle since 1975. Our family farm in Ellett Valley, near Blacksburg, is our base of operations and we lease several other farms in Montgomery and Floyd counties. Our mission is to produce tasty, healthy grassfed beef for the local market, and to produce superior South Poll Cattle. And to do so without using growth hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizer or grain-feeding. Grazing management and proper grass genetics enable us to do this. Everything we do at Ellett Valley Beef Co. is focused on producing better grass, better grassfed beef, and better South Poll Cattle.

Becky, a Virginian native, grew up on her family’s farm raising angus beef cattle. After leaving university early to pursue a life in agriculture, she started exploring new farming techniques that would allow her to revive the land and grow the family farm. She has been employed on various farming operations including grass fed and conventional dairies. She currently manages a cow/calf operation using rotational grazing methods. She also works together with her father on Mountain Glen Farm where they raise South Poll grass cattle using rotational grazing practices utilizing native warm season grasses, summer annuals, and cool season perennials. Becky is serving on the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council board of directors and continues to work diligently on expanding the public's knowledge of agricultural life through online videos and vlogs.