A sure sign of spring is the Annual Knoll Crest Farm Bull and Heifer Auction held in the big red Bull Hill auction house in Red House.

Knoll Crest Farm is nationally known as one of the premiere sources for award winning, top grade genetics in bull stock and seed. They offer champion bloodlines of Hereford Angus and Gelbvieh, Balancer livestock.

The April 13 bull auction began with a steady rain that eventually slowed to a drizzle. Parking spaces along both sides of the long drive leading up to the auction parlor were filled. Even on the first visit to the Knoll Crest Farm Cattle Auction, there is an air of familiarity to it. Family and friends filled the lobby area of the auction parlor known as

Bull Hill.
Cattle producers come from all corners of the United States for the chance to load up a bull or Heifer that carries the outstanding genetics and phenomenal reputation that Knoll Crest Farms enjoys worldwide. The Farm’s list of accolades and awards from within the cattle industry seems endless. The respect and recognition from customers is evidenced by the frequency of their return business. The first year this reporter covered the Knoll Hill auction one bull sold at a hefty $235,000 and another for $86,000.

No amount of success has changed the Bennett’s ideals of family ties.

The history of Knoll Crest is posted on their website. According to the website Knoll Crest Farm was established in 1929 by Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Bennett as a tobacco and commercial cattle farm. The original home place consisted of 290 acres. The farm is where their son James was raised. In 1950, at the age of 17, James attended Virginia Tech as a freshman, but returned home shortly thereafter to manage the farm after his father suffered heart problems.

Knoll Crest is the truest example of a family business. Each of the Bennett men have spent time away from the farm for college, then returning prepared to offer the best of themselves to the family business.
The farm is operated by Paul, Brian and Jim Bennett. Paul currently sits on the Southside Electric Cooperative Board of Directors, the Virginia Angus Association Board of Directors, and the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium Advisory Board. He has served as the past president of the Beef Improvement Federation, the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association, and the Virginia Beef Cattle Improvement Association. Paul is a deacon at Union Hill Baptist Church. Jim has served as the past Vice President of the Campbell County Cattlemen’s Association and is a deacon at Providence Baptist Church.
Brian is the current Campbell County Farm Bureau president and is a member of Gideons International as well as a deacon at Providence Baptist Church.

Dalton Bennett graduated from Virginia Tech in May 2013 in Crop and Soil Sciences. He was a member of the Crop Judging Team for two years and held leadership positions within the Agronomy Club at Virginia Tech. Dalton graduated from the Mendenhall School of Auctioneering in 2010 and helps sell and manage various cattle sales across the state as well as Knoll Crests annual bull sales. Dalton serves on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Angus Association, as well as the Campbell County Farm Bureau Board of Directors. He still finds time to serve as a judge for local FFA cattle handling competitions.

Each of these Bennett men, separate and apart from the others, (if that was even remotely possible), would be a strong, capable and well-informed asset to any agricultural community.

Together, with the influences that James “Grand Pa” Bennett, now 86, has had on them, the quality of character, strength of family that binds them together and to their community, Knoll Crest Farms is a gem of rare quality. With the consistency and success of their breeding programs, it is the type of place that changes the way the world does things.

The tally sheet of auction sales was not yet available at the time this article was written. For more information visit http://knollcrestfarm.com.