Robert Mills, VFBF Board Member and member of Pittsylvania County Farm Bureau was elected President of the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services on Thursday. Shelley Barlow of Nansemond County Farm Bureau was elected Vice President.

Mills owns and operates Briar View Farms, which includes a pullet breeder operation that raises 34,000 birds annually for Perdue Farms, and he has 300 brood cows. He also grows 90 acres of flue-cured and dark-fired tobacco.

Barlow and her husband, Joe, work and live on her family’s farm Cotton Plains Farm in Chuckatuck. The Barlows’ main crop is cotton, although they also grow wheat, soybeans and hay. She is also active in the Virginia Farm Bureau Women’s Program and the Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom Program.

The formation of the first Board of Agriculture was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly on March 5, 1888. Today’s Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services consists of citizens and practicing farmers from each Virginia congressional district and two pesticide-industry professionals. Board members are appointed by the Governor for a four-year term. The presidents of Virginia State University and Virginia Tech are ex officio members of the board.