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ABOUT RICHARD L. FITZGERALD

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CPag, Certified Professional Agronomist

Richard Fitzgerald is a certified nutrient management planner who has worked for twenty-one years in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to assist farmers with compliance issues and permit requirements for confined livestock. He supervised a team of planners with the Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) to develop and keep nutrient management plans current on more than 1300 regulated and voluntary operations in a thirteen county area. These farms vary greatly in size, complexity and their environmental footprint. He also worked as the coordinator for Virginia’s Litter Transport Program to move surplus nutrients out of concentrated counties to farms needing fertilizer.

 

He spent the last four years working as Area Cropland Agronomist for NRCS covering the Shenandoah Valley and northern Piedmont regions of Virginia working on a contract with USDA to develop and implement Virginia’s 590 Nutrient Management Cost-Share Program. 590 is a three tiered payment program that requires farmers to have a NMP written for their farm, provide records indicating plan implementation and requires adoption of at least two “new” practices to their cropping systems. Contracts grew over this period in Virginia to more than $2.4 Million on 110 contracts. He has working knowledge of State and Federal programs for soil health, soil conservation, nutrient cycling, stream exclusion and grazing management.   

 

Mr. Fitzgerald also has approximately four decades of experience running significant agricultural enterprises including a liquid fertilizer business, a 150-cow dairy and 1,200 acre crop operation, a 250-head cow/calf herd, and a retail pumpkin and specialty crops farm. He currently resides with his wife Debbie on a small equine estate in McKinley, Virginia. They have a son who is Research Scientist at Virginia Tech's Eastern Virginia Agricultural  Research and Extension Center and a daughter who is administrative and professional faculty at Virginia Tech.

 

He received a B.S. in Agronomy from Va. Tech in 1979 and is certified by the American Society of Agronomy as a Certified Professional Agronomist.

ABOUT EQUITY AG

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Equity Ag was founded by Richard L. Fitzgerald, Cpag,  who has forty years of experience in production agriculture, nutrient management planning, agronomic principles, and conversation programs. Equity Ag's mission is to work with landowners to enhance crop production, build long-term wealth and protect natural resources. By consulting with Equity Ag, farmers have immediate access to current crop production techniques for data-driven decision making that increase yields and crop quality, are poised to take advantage of government conservation incentives as well as meet state and federal permit requirements. 

CONTACT US

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Contact us!

 

Phone: 540-294-4018

Email: vtagnuts@gmail.com

Address: 345 McKinley Road

Middlebrook, VA 24459

www.equityagvirginia.com

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