Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 18, 1994                   TAG: 9409200052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DOWN ON FERRUM'S FARM, IT'S MORE THAN ACADEMIC

After three years of trying to secure financing to get into dairy farming, he had made no progress.

Several lenders had said he didn't have enough experience, even after Newbill told them that he had grown up on a Franklin County dairy farm and earned a dairy science degree from Virginia Tech. After graduation, he worked for a company that markets a breed of cows and for a vitamin supplement company that sells its product to dairy farmers.

"I was in total disbelief ... shock," he says.

Newbill and his wife, Becky, were preparing to move in a different direction. Newbill went to Hollins College to earn a teaching certificate. Along with his wife, he prepared to teach elementary school.

Newbill hasn't taught a class yet, however.

While serving as the interim director at Franklin County's 4-H Center at Smith Mountain Lake this summer, Newbill got a call from Ferrum College.

The college was looking for someone to lease its farm, the Titmus Dairy, and buy its herd of cows while agreeing to keep the dairy open as a learning laboratory for Ferrum students.

"I was in the right place at the right time," Newbill says.

Joseph L. Carter, vice president and dean of the college, said leasing the school's dairy facilities had been discussed for two years.

Ferrum bought the dairy farm - about 3 miles southwest of the school's campus - in 1989 after its owner went out of business. The school planned to use it as an educational tool, employing a farm manager to milk a modest herd of 30 to 40 cows, Carter says.

But those involved quickly realized a larger herd was needed to make the operation feasible.

"It was becoming a drain on everyone," Carter says.

Enter Newbill.

Using the Ferrum offer, he was able get a loan. On Aug. 15, he started what he hopes will be a long career in farming.

Newbill's story is an unusual one. He's 28. The average age of Virginia farmers is 60, and that figure has increased steadily in the last decade.

It's documented that young farmers are a dying breed - hard work and lower profit margins are just two of the reasons why.

Dairy farming is especially taxing. It's a 365-day-a-year job.

But Newbill knows the facts.

He says there were 16 dairy science students in his graduating class at Virginia Tech.

Jerrold Flora knows Newbill and works for Select Sires, a regional artificial insemination company headquartered in Rocky Mount. He says there were more than 100 dairy science graduates in his class in the late 1970s.

But the statistics don't mean much to Newbill. He's doing what he has always wanted to do, and he's the youngest farmer that he knows of in Franklin County.

"The hard work and the low pay turn a lot of people off," Newbill said while fixing a broken belt on one of his silage machines. "But some of my fondest memories are of growing up on the farm. Some people remember football games or other things like that.

"My memories are about farming."

Newbill was raised on his father's dairy farm. Jack Newbill, chairman of the Franklin County School Board, sold his dairy operation in 1992 after 25 years in the business and with several large loans hanging over his head.

Mark Newbill says the debt and the size of his dad's farm - it was twice the size of the Titmus Dairy - made it impossible for him to take over.

Now, with one part-time employee to help, Newbill is milking 70 cows and specializing in the dairy operation. He buys all his feed instead of growing it, and thinks specialization is a concept that will continue to grow.

"One of the biggest problems we face is labor," he says. "Farmers can't afford to pay a whole lot. Someone could go to McDonald's and make just as much. So why would anyone want to wake up at 3 a.m. every morning?"

Early to bed and early to rise is the life Newbill wants to live, however.

His wife is supportive, a big advantage for Newbill.

Becky Newbill hopes to quit her teaching job eventually and help on the farm. She and the couple's 5-month-old daughter, Tatum, make frequent visits to the dairy.

That makes the future brighter for Mark Newbill.

"I want to be a farmer 20 years down the road."