(TRENTON) - Two new members of the State Board
of Agriculture will be sworn in today, during the board’s
reorganization meeting in Eastampton, Burlington County.
Milton “Woody” Eachus of Pilesgrove, Salem County, and William
V. Griffin of Plainsboro, Middlesex County, join the eight-member board,
which serves as the policy-making body of the New Jersey Department of
Agriculture.
Mr. Eachus and Mr. Griffin will replace out-going members Dr. Stephen
Dey of Allentown, Monmouth County, and George Dean of Monroeville, Gloucester
County, who had served as President and Vice President, respectively,
of the board.
“We are pleased to welcome two outstanding new members to the Board,” said
New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Charles M. Kuperus. “I am certain that
Mr. Eachus and Mr. Griffin will bring invaluable insight and experience to the
statewide governance and promotion of agriculture. At the same time, we wish
Dr. Dey and Mr. Dean all the best as they leave the board. Their service has
been a benefit to all of us in New Jersey agriculture. I am sure we will continue
to enjoy a great relationship with them, as we have with so many past board members.”
The new members were appointed to the board by Governor James E. McGreevey
and approved by the Senate after being elected at the State Agricultural
Convention in January.
Mr. Eachus, a dairy farmer, owns and manages Myerwood Farms with his
wife, Margery, and two children, Melanie and Kevin. Myerwood Farms’ herd
consists of 380 registered Holstein cows. The family also plants and
harvests over 725 acres of corn, 50 acres of cash-crop soybeans and 150
acres of alfalfa and grass hay.
Mr. Eachus is a graduate of Clearview High School and has a Dairy Reproduction
Certificate from Graham Dairy Management School. He also has attended
Natural Resource Agricultural Engineering Service workshops on silage,
dairy housing and equipment and dairy manure systems.
He is a past president of the Salem County Board of Agriculture, a member
of the New Jersey Dairy Health Assurance Advisory Committee, a past member
of both the Salem and Gloucester County Fair Committees, a member of
the New Jersey Farm Bureau’s State Dairy Advisory Board and State
Water Quality Committee, past Statewide Director of the Farm Bureau,
past Treasurer of the Salem County Dairy Herd Improvement Association,
past President of the New Jersey Holstein Association and a member of
the Pilesgrove Township Planning and Zoning Board. He has been active
in 4-H as both a member and leader.
Mr. Griffin and his wife, Cathy, own and operate W. V. Griffin Nurseries,
Inc. of East Brunswick, a diverse 110-acre farm established in 1932.
The operation is a mix of field-grown wholesale nursery products, wholesale
Christmas tree production, re-wholesale nursery distribution and choose-and-cut
retail Christmas tree farms.
Mr. Griffin is a graduate of East Brunswick High School and holds a Bachelor
of Landscape Architecture degree from Louisiana State University
He is a past president and vice president of the Middlesex County Board
of Agriculture, and currently sits on the board’s Executive Committee.
He is Secretary and past Vice Chairman of the Middlesex County Agricultural
Development Board; Past President of the New Jersey Agriculture Experiment
Station Board of Managers; and past Central Chapter Vice Chairman of
the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association and a past Director
of that Association. He is a member of the New Jersey Farm Bureau, New
Jersey Christmas Tree Growers Association, Pennsylvania Christmas Tree
Growers Association and New Jersey Agricultural Society, and served on
the 1995 Cook College Executive Dean/NJAES Director Search Committee.
Click
here for photo of Mr. Eachus and Mr. Griffin. |
