Worst tick season in years looms — for humans too It was May 2021 when several bulls came out of their pasture at Eldon Farms in Woodville covered in something farm manager John Genho had never seen before. “You couldn't put your hand on the bull and not touch a...
‘It was intimidating at first’ For Flint Hill resident Amanda Frye Bywaters, becoming a farmer meant walking into a world where she often felt she didn’t belong — little experience, plenty of unspoken doubt and a field largely shaped by older men. “It was intimidating...
Hay crops down average 50% ‘Everything is dependent on water’ Tom Massie stands on a hilltop near Massies Corner, taking in a portion of his 150 acres of rolling hayfields as a misty rain falls around him, soaking into what was, before this week, bone-dry soil. He...
She knew nothing about cattle farming. Then she changed it. Monira Rifaat never expected to become a cattle farmer. Trained as a pathologist under the British medical system in Egypt where she was born in 1938, she arrived in the United States in the 1960s, completed...
Fate of Waterpenny Farm, Sperryville River Trail in question The unwinding of the Clifford Miller III family’s vast Sperryville landholdings and partnerships accelerated last weekend when a local couple, Pat Snyder and Bob Kramer, signed a contract to buy 17 acres...
‘Pretty much a total loss’ As Bill Gadino walked through his vineyard at Gadino Cellars in Washington, he stopped several times last Friday to pick dried, withering leaves off grapevines. “These had all emerged,” he said, examining the nubs left where fresh...
Spring is in full swing at Charming Hill Farm, where more than 20 goat kids and lambs have been born in recent weeks. Dozens of families visited the Amissville farm Saturday to meet the babies during its goat-cuddling sessions and tours. The new arrivals come...
With the scent of fresh-cut lumber in the air and hammers ringing across the fields, Rappahannock Nature Camp’s new home at Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville is taking shape. Read the full story by Julia Shanahan at rappnews.com Photos by Ireland Hayes [gallery...
Amissville farmers raise questions about local laws When Amissville farmers Matthew Boyer and Carlos Rodriguez got home to Charming Hill Farm from a vacation the afternoon of Feb. 10, something didn’t look right. Animals that are normally kept in separate areas of the...
A new way of using solar power with crops — the first project of its kind in Virginia — is already catching the eye of some Rappahannock farmers. Called agrivoltaics, the innovative, renewable energy project places solar panels over crop plantings, allowing both solar...
Orchards hit hard by late frost Rappahannock fruit growers could well look back on the 2025 season as among their least bountiful. First it was the peach crop, with losses of up to 70%, victim of unusually warm temperatures in March, followed by a hard April freeze....
The Cupeper Rodeo returned for its fourth year over Labor Day weekend, hosting over 8,000 people at the Culpeper Agriculture Enterprise. Photos by Ireland Hayes [gallery link="none" size="large"...
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