News Release:

Shenandoah County producer elected to Farm Bureau board

John R. Zirkle Sr. of New Market was elected Nov. 28 to a three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors. Elections of directors were held at the organization’s 2007 Annual Convention in Chantilly.

Zirkle is a past president of Farm Bureau of Shenandoah County and currently serves on the VFBF Farm Bill Advisory Committee, Poultry Advisory Committee and Animal Husbandry Advisory Committee. As a board member he will represent Farm Bureau producer members in Clarke, Frederick, Loudoun, Page, Rappahannock, Shenandoah and Warren counties.

Zirkle raises turkeys for the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative. He also has 150 head of brood cattle and raises hay, soybeans and small grains on his 750-acre farm, and he operates a poultry litter business.

He and his wife, Denise, have four children. The Zirkles attend Woods Chapel Independent Bible Church.

With 148,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farm organization.

Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization that supports its members through legislative lobbying, leadership programs, commodity marketing and risk management services, insurance products and other benefits.