Sunbelt - Sunbelt Expo Program 2019

ers at both Virginia Tech and North Carolina State University. McDowell also earned his Beef Quality Assurance Certification & Trainer status and has been twice named Virginia Seedstock Producer of the Year. He became one of the founders and is now director for the Halifax County Cattlemen’s Association and is active in a number of local and state industry associations. Locust Level Farm has also hosted Virginia Angus Field Day, Virginia Forage and Grasslands Council Grazing School, Virginia Cooperative Extension Cow Calf College, and Soil and Water Conservation Districts Stockpiled Forage Field Day.

All of this hard work has paid off in high-quality, award-winning Angus heifers and bulls. McDowell has embraced new techniques for producing purebreds for commercial herds that include genetic selection, ultrasonic evaluation for yearling bulls and heifers, evaluation of genomic rankings, and embryo transfer programs with veterinary consultation.

He says, “Our veterinarian daughter and son-in-law have been at the forefront of our intensive AI (artificial insemination) and embryo transfer program. Having them in the family and contributing to the farm drives our herd health and success.” Locust Level currently has 120 head of purebred Angus cows, 50 head of purebred heifers, and 70 head of purebred sale bulls.

Locust Level’s crops are currently marketed through the cow herd and excess hay is marketed through the Halifax County Cattlemen’s Association’s Hay Producer List. Bulls are marketed through organized farm bull auction and sales in conjunction with two other breeders. LLF bulls are also marketed private treaty and females through a combination of private treaty, bull sales, and a spring consignment auction. A catalog is produced yearly.

McDowell is quick to say that his agricul-
tural career has been aided enormously by
his early off-farm professional experience in
agricultural financing. He recalls, “Working
for Dominion Farm Loan Corporation in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, I covered six
counties as an agribusiness representative,
while still working more or less full time on
the farm. It was rewarding to help bring ag-
financing to areas where lenders had not
previously seen farms as favorable invest-
ments. I also made a lot of helpful contacts
and friendships along the way.”
From 1987 to 2000, another role as owner/
partner in Southside Fence Builders & Sup-
plies increased McDowell’s base of useful
knowledge. It was a retail outlet of fencing,
cattle handling, and fencing equipment that
employed custom fence construction crews
working in two states. “This enterprise,” he
notes, “was one of the first to deal with high
tensile fencing and enabled us to greatly
expand infrastructure of farm facilities at rea-
sonable costs because we headquartered on
our own land here.”
A long-term board member of Mecklen-
burg Electrical Cooperative, McDowell is cur-
rently involved in their ongoing initiative to
bring broadband with superior fiber optics
to the region, straight into people’s homes,
allowing farm families in more remote
areas access to internet-related educational
resources. He says, “Cooperatives of this type
serve the interests of their members first,
unlike some public utilities. Let’s not forget
that electricity gave rural America the chance
to catch up with the rest of the country. And
this is just the next step.”
Over the years McDowell also took advan-
tage of the H-2A law to allow migrants to
legally work on Virginia farms on a seasonal
basis. He notes, “We put a lot of effort into
recruiting skilled labor from places where
the workers had their own small farms and
were clearly qualified to do excellent work.
They became an invaluable component of
our ability to succeed.”
McDowell has long been involved with the
operations of the Red House Bull Evaluation
Station and sales. He also volunteers at the
Halifax County Junior Livestock
Show and Virginia Angus Breed-
ers Show at the Olde Dominion
Ag Complex.
The McDowell family is a close-
knit unit that pitches in to help out
during farm sale dates, clerking
paperwork or processing cattle.
A few of the grandchildren are
beginning their own 4-H experi-
ence. All sixteen of them take
vacations together to places like
the Tennessee mountains and
South Carolina beaches whenever
their busy schedules allow.
McDowell says, “We just kick
back, play board games, go out to
eat together, and generally enjoy
each other’s company.” They also all attend
County Line Baptist Church, founded in 1771,
where Mike McDowell is now the full-time
pastor. He says, “In 2011 I felt the call to evan-
gelize and preach about the love of God and
his presence in our lives. I’m now an ordained
minister and still farm full-time.”
As to lessons learned over his service-filled
life, McDowell says, “Patience comes from long-
suffering; rain always follows drought at some
point, and spring follows winter. The aim is to
stay calm during the challenging times and
find peace and comfort in the knowledge that
there will always be unknowns in farming. And
most importantly, realize that living things are
highly responsive to management. So, what
we do matters. The care and effort we give
to crops and livestock have a real and direct
effect. Farming is life science.”

McDowell was nominated Virginia Farmer of the Year by Rebekah Slabach, Agriculture Extension Agent for Halifax County. She comments, “Mike McDowell has successfully overcome challenges and intelligently adapted over time to make Locust Level Farms a leading Virginia herd of registered Angus cattle. He and his family have made great strides in improving cattle genetics and reproductive health and have grown the bull development marketing enterprise.