Pittsylvania County beef and poultry producer Robert Mills Jr. of Callands has been elected to a three-year term on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors. Elections of directors were held Dec. 1 during the organization’s 2011 annual convention in Norfolk.

As a board member, Mills will represent Farm Bureau producer members in Campbell, Halifax and Pittsylvania counties. He also is a member of the VFBF Legislative Advisory Committee and the VFBF Poultry Advisory Committee.

He replaces Joe Williams, also from Pittsylvania County, who did not seek re-election.

Mills owns and operates Briar View Farms Poultry, a 17,000-pullet breeder operation that raises birds for Perdue Farms, and co-owns M.C. Cattle, a 500-head cow-calf operation. He also grows burley and dark- fired tobacco with his sons.

He has won several awards for his environmentally friendly farming practices, including the 2008 VFBF Young Farmers Environmental Stewardship Award. He is a past president of the Pittsylvania County Farm Bureau and serves on the organization’s board of directors. He also serves on the boards of the Olde Dominion Agriculture Foundation and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Mills and his wife, Cindy, have two sons, Logan and Holden.

With more than 150,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non- governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to protecting Virginia’s farms and ensuring a safe, fresh and locally grown food supply.