Making hay: Foothills farmer's dream becoming a reality
Extension agents from three counties have developed the Davis land as a demonstration and research farm.
Photo by Dave Caldwell
The sun is shining, and hay is being made, literally and figuratively, on the Alan C. Davis Demonstration and Research Farm. Hay production is figurative in the sense that this piece of rolling land in the North Carolina foothills is being used to develop information that area farmers may use to farm more progressively and efficiently.
The Davis Farm comprises 92 acres of Wilkes County just north of Elkin off U.S. Highway 21. As Bob Edwards, director of North Carolina Cooperative Extension's Northwest District, says, if you start climbing into the mountains on Highway 21, you've gone too far.
The farm became a part of N.C. State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2001, when Alan Davis' mother, Jurileen Davis, donated the property to the College.
Alan Davis, who died of cancer in 1999, was a progressive, ahead-of-his-time farmer, says Edwards, who lives in nearby Alleghany County and was a friend of Davis. Edwards adds that Alan Davis loved farming and wanted his land to continue to be farmed after his death. His mother accommodated her son's wishes when she gave the land to the College with the stipulation that it continue to be used for agriculture.
The Davis Farm lies at a corner where the boundaries of Wilkes, Alleghany and Surry counties touch, and since 2001, Extension agents from the three counties have been working to develop the land as a demonstration and research farm.
The first fruits of this work were evident in mid-May at what was billed as the Northwest North Carolina Hay Expo. Perhaps 100 area farmers came to the Davis Farm on a brilliant spring morning to hear Dr. Jim Turner, an Extension livestock specialist stationed at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, talk about hay storage and quality, while Matt Miller, Extension agent in Wilkes, took the crowd through demonstration plots of different types of forage, and Bryan Cave, Extension agent in Surry County, talked about hayfield weed control.
Beef cattle production is among the more important types of agriculture in the foothills, Miller explained, as is producing hay to feed to cattle.
Yet more than forage production is being demonstrated at the Davis Farm.
"We're trying to look at things that are smaller - land is so expensive - that smaller, part-time farmers can use, things like blueberries, small-lot Christmas trees, blackberries," says Edwards. "We're trying to do a little of everything."
Demonstrations of apples, grapes and boxwoods are also in place. Agents from the three contiguous counties have come together to put in and maintain the demonstrations.
Edwards says Bill Hanlin from Wilkes County is leading the effort, while Bryan Cave, Terry Garwood and Joanna Radford, Surry; Miller, Wilkes; and George Stancil and David Isner, Alleghany, are also working at the farm. Craig Adkins, an area specialized agent in commercial horticulture, stationed in Caldwell County, and Molly Sandfoss, an area specialized agent for aquaculture, stationed in McDowell County, are also involved.
"It's a dream that Alan had," Edwards says of the farm. It's a dream that is coming to fruition.
-Dave Caldwell
The Davis Farm comprises 92 acres of Wilkes County just north of Elkin off U.S. Highway 21. As Bob Edwards, director of North Carolina Cooperative Extension's Northwest District, says, if you start climbing into the mountains on Highway 21, you've gone too far.
The farm became a part of N.C. State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2001, when Alan Davis' mother, Jurileen Davis, donated the property to the College.
Alan Davis, who died of cancer in 1999, was a progressive, ahead-of-his-time farmer, says Edwards, who lives in nearby Alleghany County and was a friend of Davis. Edwards adds that Alan Davis loved farming and wanted his land to continue to be farmed after his death. His mother accommodated her son's wishes when she gave the land to the College with the stipulation that it continue to be used for agriculture.
The Davis Farm lies at a corner where the boundaries of Wilkes, Alleghany and Surry counties touch, and since 2001, Extension agents from the three counties have been working to develop the land as a demonstration and research farm.
The first fruits of this work were evident in mid-May at what was billed as the Northwest North Carolina Hay Expo. Perhaps 100 area farmers came to the Davis Farm on a brilliant spring morning to hear Dr. Jim Turner, an Extension livestock specialist stationed at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, talk about hay storage and quality, while Matt Miller, Extension agent in Wilkes, took the crowd through demonstration plots of different types of forage, and Bryan Cave, Extension agent in Surry County, talked about hayfield weed control.
Beef cattle production is among the more important types of agriculture in the foothills, Miller explained, as is producing hay to feed to cattle.
Yet more than forage production is being demonstrated at the Davis Farm.
"We're trying to look at things that are smaller - land is so expensive - that smaller, part-time farmers can use, things like blueberries, small-lot Christmas trees, blackberries," says Edwards. "We're trying to do a little of everything."
Demonstrations of apples, grapes and boxwoods are also in place. Agents from the three contiguous counties have come together to put in and maintain the demonstrations.
Edwards says Bill Hanlin from Wilkes County is leading the effort, while Bryan Cave, Terry Garwood and Joanna Radford, Surry; Miller, Wilkes; and George Stancil and David Isner, Alleghany, are also working at the farm. Craig Adkins, an area specialized agent in commercial horticulture, stationed in Caldwell County, and Molly Sandfoss, an area specialized agent for aquaculture, stationed in McDowell County, are also involved.
"It's a dream that Alan had," Edwards says of the farm. It's a dream that is coming to fruition.
-Dave Caldwell