Richdale Farm is located in Wytheville, VA and was founded by Henry John Crowgey in November 1876.  Henry John, originally from Cornwall England, purchased 253 acres in southwest Virginia.  It was operated as a general livestock and home to 9 brothers.

 

In the fall of 1929, Leonard J. Crowgey, one of the nine brothers, purchased Mr. Harold Searles herd of 21 registered Holstein cows from Wisconsin and began shipping grade A milk into the West Virginia market. At the time he leased the farm from his parents and then bought the farm at public auction in 1942. The herd was sold down in 1942 to put a down payment on the farm and again in 1949 to purchase additional land.

 

In 1956, L. Joe Crowgey, Jr. returned to the farm after 4 years in the United States Air Force and 4 years at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He saw to the steady expansion of the herd with the introduction of TMR in the mid 1970's. He also served as one of the founding members of Virginia Genetics. In 1969, he and his wife, Jane, acquired the farm from the estate. At that point the farm reached its 500 acre present size.

 

In June of 1982, Joe's son, Eric, returned to the farm after graduating from 4 years at Virginia Tech, where he met his wife, Lisa. The registered herd continued to grow to 150 dairy cows and added 60 acres of additional rented land. With the conventional dairy business in a gradual decline, we added pumpkins in 1999, a flock of Katahdin Hair Sheep in 2004, and sweet corn in 2008. We continued in the registered Holstein business until 2006, when the herd was sold to a registered breeder in Florida.

 

The Seasonal Grazing Dairy was hatched when Eric's son, Aaron, wanted to return to the farm after graduating from The University of Tennessee in 2009. Ideas became reality when we purchased 80 Jersey Holstein Crossbred heifers in the spring of 2009 and a new dairy barn was completed in April 2010. For almost 10 years we milked 112 Jersey cross cows. 

 

In the fall of 2018, we closed the milking parlor and started a new fall festival - Fall on the Farm at Richdale.  We offer pumpkin picking, hay rides, a corn maze and activities for all ages.  We currently have 330 Katahdin Ewes plus lambs, 15 head of beef cows, 12 acres of pumpkins and fall produce and 1 acre of sweet corn.​  We maintain over 650 acres with additional land being leased. Our farm is filled with animal agriculture with Beef, Sheep, Dairy and the occasional pig. Crops grown support feeding our animals, with specialty crops grown to add to our diversity to our operation.