N.C. Cooperative Extension-Alexander County Newsletter November 2025

Applications are being accepted NOW for AgVentures Grant!!

NC AgVentures, a NC State Extension program provides grants to NC farmers and non-profit community groups that work with family farms, for agricultural project ideas that will increase farm profits. The program, which is sponsored by the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, will award a minimum of 50 grants to independent family farms. This is a great opportunity for any producer who is thinking of diversifying, improving, or expanding their farm operation.This is a competitive grant program.

Applications will be accepted from family farms in the following counties: Alamance, Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Cabarrus, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Davidson, Davie, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Forsyth,, Gaston, Granville, Greene, Guilford, Halifax, Harnett, Iredell, Johnston, Lincoln, Martin, Mecklenburg, Nash, Northampton, Orange, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Rockingham, Rowan, Sampson, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Union, Vance, Wake, Wayne, Wilson, Wilkes, Warren, and Yadkin.

NC AgVentures will award grants up to $10,000.
Application submission begins October 15th, 2025
Deadline to apply is 6 PM December 19th, 2025.

More Information on the AgVentures Grant** If you are interested in applying for an AgVentures Grant, please contact Cari Rosenbalm or Allison Brown at 828-632-4451 or email: cari_rosenbalm@ncsu.edu or allison_brown@ncsu.edu.

Below is a comment from one of our local farm families that received this grant to help purchase equipment for their farm:

In 2025, we were blessed to receive the Ag Adventure Grant for H&C Boer Goat Farm. With that support, we were able to upgrade our fencing to keep our goats safer and make it easier to rotate pastures. We also added automatic feeders, which let the goats eat whenever they’re hungry and help turn every pound of feed into healthy muscle. A year later, we’ve seen fewer losses from goats getting stuck in the fence and a big improvement in our feed efficiency and profits. This grant has truly helped our farm grow stronger and run smoother than ever before.

Local Farm Places in State and Regional Hay Contests

Mountainside Farm of Taylorsville, NC, owned by Steve and Carol Mitchell, continues to excel in alfalfa production. Steve works year-round to maintain meticulously managed alfalfa fields that produce high-quality hay sought after by equine and small ruminant producers.

This year, Mountainside Farm earned 2nd place in the Alfalfa Hay Division at the NC State Fair Hay Contest and 3rd place in the Alfalfa Hay Division at the Southeastern Hay Contest, which includes entries from ten states across the Southeast.

Congratulations to Mountainside Farm for their continued dedication and success in producing exceptional quality hay!

Brushy Mountain Apples Return to the NC State Fair After 30 Years

For more than 30 years, the apple industry has been proudly represented at the North Carolina State Fair. However, that representation has long come solely from Henderson County growers, thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers led by retired Henderson County Extension Director, Marvin Owings.

That changed this year.

When the judging results were finalized, I was thrilled to see that Deal Orchards placed 4th overall in the Apple Growers Sweepstakes! They brought home an impressive three first-place ribbons, one second-place ribbon, and three fourth-place ribbons across several categories:

Deal Orchards Results – 2025 NC State Fair

Apple Growers Sweepstakes (Overall) – 4th place
Commercial Apple Display – 4th place
Best Single Apple Box – 4th place
Single Tray Gala – 2nd place
Single Tray Any Other Named Red Variety – 1st place
Single Plate Any Other Named Red Variety – 1st place
Orchard Apples, Any Red Apple Variety (Tray or 5) – 1st place

It was truly an honor to represent the Brushy Mountain apple region and work alongside Michelle, Marvin, and the rest of the Henderson County team.

Do you know how many bushel boxed of apples we went throught to make sure all categories had an entry and how many times each apple was touched? Click on the link below to find out.

As a bonus, I also had the chance to witness the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth Weigh-Offs—a highlight of the fair each year. The largest watermelon tipped the scales at 288.6 pounds, grown by Chris Kent of Sevierville, Tennessee, while the largest pumpkin weighed an astounding 2,244.5 pounds, grown by Albert Rodebaugh of Craigsville, West Virginia.

Check out Cari Rosenbalm, Extension Agent, Hortculture, newsletter link below to read more of this article and other great topics and programs she has coming up.
November Newsletter

We recently held our annual Alexander County Farm City Banquet at the Emerald Hill located in Hiddenite NC. I thought I might share with you some highlights from the evening. If you are not familiar with the Farm City Banquet, it is an event aimed at bringing together rural and urban community members to celebrate agriculture and what it means to us all. We had an excellent turnout with farm and non farm representation. I was able to share a few agriculture statistics pertaining to Alexander County. Alexander County ranks 5th in layer production and 10th in Broiler production. In Cattle our county ranks 6th in All Cattle numbers and 10th in Beef Cows. Alexander County is a hard working farming county as it ranks 17th in the state in Farm Cash Receipts from Livestock and Crops bringing in over $307 million dollars in 2023.

Then we heard from Will Brinkley the Tarheel Farmer, who was our guest speaker. He is a 1st generation farmer from Davidson County who has found himself with quite the following on TikTok and other social media outlets. He has a mix of both educational and entertaining videos that reflect the farming community in a humorously accurate manner. He referenced how different it is to be a first generation farmer versus a 3rd or 4th generation farmer and encouraged the entire farming community to support one another. Will also reminded us that simple conversations with folks go a long way and how important it is for us adults to teach our kids how to talk to adults and interact with them. Of course we enjoyed some laughs as he shared childhood stories and stories of him starting his farming operation as a teenager.

We finished out the evening with a live auction benefiting Alexander County 4-H and Alexander Central FFA. There were some amazing auction items made by local craftsmen, artisans and our very own FFA students. Ted Muscarelli did an amazing job as auctioneer and we raised over $2,000.00. We appreciate our major sponsors, AgSouth Farm Credit and Alexander County Farm Bureau for supporting this event and local agriculture. A huge thank you to ALL that had a hand in making this night a success! If you missed coming this year, you missed out. Be sure to mark your calendar for October 2026 so you won’t miss out again. Farm City is presented each year by North Carolina Cooperative Extension - Alexander County Center.