The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation has new leadership for the first time in 18 years. During the December 2024 annual meeting, voting delegates picked Sink as the leader of the state’s largest farmers’ advocacy group after Wayne Pryor decided not to seek re-election at the end of his ninth term.

Growing up on a multigenerational farm in Franklin County, Sink bought his first cow at the age of 10.

Today, Sink and his wife, Mendy, operate SES Agricultural Enterprise, which produces beef cattle and hay and provides agricultural services and agritourism opportunities in Franklin, Montgomery and Pulaski counties. The couple, who have two daughters, Mekinsley and Mehailyn, also own Riner Ridge Farm in Montgomery and Hethwood Market in Blacksburg.

Previously, Sink had served as the VFBF’s vice president. He is also past chair of the VFBF Young Farmers Committee and a past president of the Franklin County Farm Bureau.

HOW I DEFINE SUCCESS: The value we bring to helping others in our community, especially our members. When we are there for them and are able to help them through difficult times, then I consider that success.

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National Fruit Product Co. sells apple products ranging from applesauce to juice to vinegar, mostly under the White House Foods label. In an October 2024 episode of the “Conversations on Leadership with Dr. Dave” podcast, Gum said much of the operation is automated and that the company has about 150 employees.

National Fruit Product has been family-owned since its 1908 start. Gum began working there in 1981 at age 20 and worked in most every department before purchasing it from its founding family in 2006. The Gum family also owns Winchester-based furniture manufacturer Henkel Harris, acquired in 2013.

National Fruit, which bills itself as the nation’s top brand for distilled white vinegar and cleaning vinegar, launched two new products this year: all-natural cleaning vinegar wipes and an organic applesauce line.

Gum has served as a past board member for the Virginia Manufacturers Association, the Apple

Processing Association, Consumer Brands Advisory Board, Winchester Medical Center Foundation, and the USO of Metropolitan Washington Baltimore.

FIRST JOB: I grew up working in the construction business with my stepfather.

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Sixth-generation chicken farmer Heatwole started his humane, sustainable and traceable chicken company in 2014. Originally named Shenandoah Valley Organic but rebranded as Farmer Focus in 2020, the company lets farmers own their flocks, make key decisions and receive fair compensation.

Farmer Focus has more than 120 farming partners and more than 1,300 team members. In March, the company announced that a redesign of its packaging by Truly Creative, a California design company, earned the 2024 Graphic Design USA Best-of-Year Award out of more than 8,000 entries. Each package contains a unique four-letter Farm ID that traces back to the chicken’s farm of origin.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last year, Farmer Focus worked with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina to donate more than 75,000 servings of chicken for those in need of meals.

According to a July Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Farmer Focus has raised

$7 million, with the first sale in the raise occurring in January.

Heatwole moved from the CEO role to chairman of Farmer Focus’ board of managers in 2023.

Stephen J. Shepard has worked as president and CEO since then.

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Starting as a liquid fertilizer business on a Shenandoah family farm in 1975, Houff Corp. grew to provide a range of agricultural and industrial services, including agronomy, supply chain solutions, transloading and biosolids management.

Houff, who earned an agriculture education degree from Virginia Tech, has been the corporation’s president since the early 1990s. In recent years, Houff Corp. has expanded its crop storage space at its Weyers Cave facility. The 90-employee company is building out a 16-acre rail transload facility in Doswell, its fifth Virginia location and third transload facility.

Houff Corp. and its sister company, IDM Trucking, make up Railside Enterprises. In 1999, the companies began distributing stock to employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan and today the company is 48% employee-owned.

Houff is a member of the Virginia Crop Production Association board. Last year, he joined the board of F&M Bank Corp., the parent company of Farmers & Merchants Bank, which has banking offices in Rockingham, Shenandoah and Augusta counties and in the cities of Winchester and Waynesboro.

FIRST JOB: Feeding baby calves on our dairy farm

PERSONAL MOTTO: Why can’t we do it?

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Smith became CEO and president of Smithfield Foods in 2021, just as the world’s largest pork product manufacturer and hog producer announced an end to slaughter operations in its hometown of Smithfield, the country’s self- proclaimed “ham capital.”

In January, Smithfield launched its initial public offering of 26 million stock shares at $20 per share on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, raising $522 million. More than a decade had passed since the company’s stock had been traded in the United States.

Smithfield was owned by China’s WH Group since 2013, and the combined company went public in Hong Kong in 2014.

Smithfield announced in August 2024 its European operations had been carved into an independent subsidiary, now called Morliny Foods. In December 2024, Smithfield signed a deal with VisionAg, an affiliate of North Carolina’s HD3 Farms, to start a new hog production business named VisionAg Hog Production. Smithfield said in June it will bring about 115 jobs to Virginia’s Tidewater region over several months as it relocated the positions from the Midwest. With about 36,000 employees, the company reported $14.1 billion in fiscal 2024 net sales.

Smith, who joined Smithfield in 2003 as a financial analyst, grew up on a North Carolina farm.

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With a combined annual economic impact of more than $105 billion, agriculture and forestry provide more than 490,000 jobs in Virginia. Lohr’s office and its three agencies oversee these industries among other duties, including supporting rural economic development.

Virginia’s secretary of agriculture and forestry since January 2022, Lohr previously served as a three-term state delegate, as commissioner of the Virginia Department

of Agriculture and Consumer Services and as chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. He also worked as knowledge center director for agricultural lender Farm Credit of the Virginias.

A fifth-generation farmer, Lohr and his two children own and operate Valley Pike Farm in Broadway. The Virginia Tech graduate previously taught middle school agriscience in Shenandoah County for two years. In 2024, he received the Outstanding Alumni Career Achievement Award from Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ alumni organization.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME:

I love adventure. I went skydiving with my two kids when they each turned 18.

INTERESTING PLACES I’VE TRAVELED: The Philippines,

Morocco, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France during the last four years.

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