May 11, 2006

Farmers hope welcome brochure will orient new neighbors

NELSONIA—On one side of the road is farmland that Lynn Gayle rents for his 4,500-acre grain, soybean and vegetable operation.

On the other side are staked-off lots that eventually will have houses on them.

“Sooner or later,” Gayle said as he drove past, “I’m going to have a tomato crop (practically) in their front yards.”

Accomack is Virginia’s No. 1 corn-, soybean-, wheat- and tomato-producing county and the No. 2 poultry-producing county. It’s also home to Perdue Inc. and Tyson Foods poultry processing plants, and Accomack growers produce more than 37 million broilers annually.

The county has seen significant residential development in the past decade or so. Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Gayle said, “is the last frontier of the Eastern Seaboard. And it’s being discovered.”

Gayle, who is president of the Accomack County Farm Bureau, and other Accomack farmers want new residents to have a clear picture of the community before they buy or move. To that end, the county Farm Bureau has created a welcome brochure for new and potential residents. It was written by Jim Belote, Accomack’s Virginia Cooperative Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources, and inspired by a similar brochure created by the Northumberland/Lancaster Farm Bureau.

Belote, an Accomack native, noted that many people who move to the Shore have had little exposure to farms. The brochure identifies crops grown in Accomack and the kinds of work they require at different times of the year. “When you move into this area you can expect basic-type activities involved with farming,” he said.

There’s something of a learning curve involved, said David Hickman, an Accomack grain, soybean and vegetable grower. “So many people are moving to the Eastern Shore from Baltimore and D.C. and New Jersey that are not familiar with agricultural practices, and we want them to know that, when they come here, part of the joy of country living is tractors running at night, diesel engines running all night long, dust in the summertime, the odor of manure a few months of the year. There are some parts of country living that maybe aren’t quite as desirable, but they’re a part of everyday life here.”

The welcome brochure explains how agricultural and forestal districts protect local farms. It also outlines basic irrigation and double-cropping practices and notes that poultry litter from local poultry houses is applied to farm fields for fertilizer.

Another topic it addresses is driving safety and the fact that residents share the road—even after dark—with tractors and other machinery, as well as vehicles used to transport farm laborers.

Farm Bureau members have been working to make the brochure available by early summer, before vegetable production reaches its peak. “It’s a pretty busy time, and you can expect significant agricultural activity in the county,” Belote said.

Contact Gayle at 757-665-6490 or Belote at 757-787-1361.