Pittsylvania County tobacco, beef and poultry producer Robert J. Mills Jr. of Callands was elected Dec. 4 to a two-year term as vice president of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

Elections of officers and directors were held during the 2024 VFBF Annual Meeting of Voting Delegates in Hot Springs.

Mills succeeds Scott E. Sink of Blacksburg, who was elected VFBF president. Mills formerly served on the organization’s board, representing Farm Bureau producer members in Campbell, Halifax and Pittsylvania counties.

He has served as chair of the VFBF Poultry Advisory Committee and vice chair of the VFBF Flue-Cured Tobacco Advisory Committee, and has been a member of the VFBF Livestock Advisory Committee.

Mills owns and operates Briar View Farms, which includes a pullet breeder operation that raises 34,000 birds annually for Perdue Farms and a 300-head cow-calf operation. He also grows conventional flue-cured, dark-fired and cigar wrapper tobacco, as well as organic flue-cured tobacco, corn, soybeans and wheat.

He is a past president of the Pittsylvania County Farm Bureau and previously served on that organization’s board of directors. He also previously served as president of the board of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Mills serves on the Virginia Tobacco Board and on the boards of the Virginia Agricultural Growers Association and Tobacco Associates Inc. He also serves on the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board. He is a past chair of the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Dean’s Advisory Council and a past member of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

Mills was named Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Famer of the Year in 2017 and named to the 2020 Virginia Business magazine Virginia 500 list.

He and his wife, Cindy, have two sons, Logan and Holden.


With more than 135,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non-governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to supporting Virginia’s agriculture industry. View more convention news as it becomes available at vafb.com/convention, and follow us on social media via #VFBF24 #CultivatingConnections.

Contact Pam Wiley, vice president of communications, at 804-291-6315.