BUCKINGHAM — Officials, farmers and agricultural producers from Cumberland, Buckingham and Appomattox counties celebrated the opening of the new Buckingham Agricultural Resource Network (BARN) facility last Tuesday.

The project, a years-in-the-making effort by the Buckingham Cattlemen’s Association (BCA), includes an 80-foot-wide and 200-foot-long commercial building on U.S. Route 60 in Buckingham that will serve the agricultural and farming needs of the community, region and BCA.

Financial support for the project came from local governments in Cumberland, Buckingham and Appomattox, the Virginia Tobacco Commission, state grants, fundraising and monetary and in-kind donations.

“The BARN project will bring more agricultural dollars back to the county and the region,” said Sandra F. Moss, sharing a commission report during the ceremony. Moss, a member of the Tobacco Commission, said it would also provide room for expansion and improvement in the agricultural industry of central Virginia.

The Dillwyn resident said she was very proud of the BCA and the project, and commended County Extension Agent Jennifer Ligon for her hard work in making the BARN a reality.

U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt, who represents Virginia’s 5th District and would later help dedicate the building, said the project was a commitment to the future in preserving the area’s agricultural industry.

The building includes open space to move and handle cattle with ranch equipment, while a smaller portion contains a kitchen, meeting rooms and restrooms.

“It’s going to be used as a community center, basically,” Ligon told The Herald in a past interview. “It’s where the [BCA] will house all their yearly meetings and activities. They’ll have their heifer sale here and also load the cattle out from their feeder calf sale. It’s going to be available to the community and other agricultural producers. …”

“This is our dream come true,” said retired county extension agent and BCA member Jim Myers in an earlier interview. “These guys don’t have to haul [cattle] to Lynchburg. They can bring them in here, we can do three or four loads at a time … It’ll be a whole lot easier for everybody.”

Myers said the facility could also be used for 4-H activities.

The BCA will oversee operations of the BARN, and it will be open for use by members of the community and civic organizations. Cattle pens will be removable in the open-space area so other functions can take place.

According to a tobacco commission report on the project, the BARN could create 25 part-time jobs. “The BCA loses $48,570 per year through additional market costs, fuel and labor costs and cattle shrink each year due to the approximate 60-minute drive to the livestock market.” The report noted that the Lynchburg Livestock Market will work with and support the BCA “in a local working/load out facility in Buckingham. …”