TAZEWELL COUNTY, Va. – A Tazewell County sheep farmer has been re-appointed to a Virginia board.
Clinton Bell was re-appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin last week to serve as a board member on Virginia’s Sheep Industry Board.
Bell is one of 12 members on the board representing the sheep industry as well as its support services.
“I raised my first lamb when I was six. So it’s been a long time. I grew up with sheep, worked with them my whole career,” said Bell.
Bell has served the previous four years on the board and is set to serve again on the board for the next four years. Bell and the others are in charge of allocating funding gathered from sheep sold.
That funding helps with predator control, educational programs and research.
“I represent this area of Virginia, the southwest area. We have a meeting coming up in January and we’ll look at proposals from people wanting to use some of these funds for different projects. We’ll either approve or disapprove,” said Bell.
Bell says he has around 275 adult female sheep on his farm right now. He says as a sheep farmer himself he’s hoping to continue to help farmers keep their flocks safe from predators as well as improve the industry’s economy.
He says bears and coyotes continue to be a problem.
“That’s our big problem around here and make sure that keeps getting funded and any other promotional items that come up that would increase consumption of lamb would be a good thing,” said Bell.
Bell says each sheep sold by he and other sheep farmers generates 50 cents each. Bell says he believes the board typically generates between $20,000 and $25,000 a year.
To learn more about Virginia’s Sheep Industry Board you can click here.
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