Concord Baptist Church will host its Christmas program on Sunday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m. A love offering will be collected to help families in need at this special time of the year. Light refreshments will follow. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The Buckingham 4-H Livestock Club will meet on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 6:30 p.m. at the BARN in Buckingham. The club will enjoy a Christmas party after discussions of record books, sponsorships, character pillars, and plans for purchasing livestock animals.

Virginia Cooperative Extension will host the 2019 Valley Beef Conference on Thursday, Dec. 12, at the Shenandoah Valley Meeting Room; Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative, 180 Oakwood Drive, Rockingham, from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. To register or for any questions, call the Augusta Extension Office at (540) 245-5750 or email John Benner at benner89@vt.edu. Registration is required by Monday, Dec. 9. Checks may be made payable to VCE-Augusta. The major focus of the program is the use of corn silage in beef operations that background calves over winter and as base ration for the cow herd. It will include in-depth presentations on the nutritional, agronomic and economic considerations in using corn silage. The featured speaker for the program is Beef Extension Specialist Dr. Tara Felix at the Pennsylvania State University who specializes in ruminant nutrition. Dr. Felix will address the nutritional impacts of feeding corn silage to weaned and backgrounded calves to maximize gain at an affordable cost. The program will also feature a presentation by Dr. Wade Thomason on the agronomic factors of growing not only corn silage but also small grains for feedstuffs as part of a crop rotation. Dr. Thomason is a professor and extension grains specialist for Virginia Tech. Part of his extension program includes coordinating the annual Virginia Tech Corn Silage and Grain On-Farm test plots. Dr. Gonzalo Ferreira, extension dairy management specialist at Virginia Tech, will present on the harvest, management and feeding factors of corn silage. Finally, the program will address beef cow herd reproductive performance with a presentation by Dr. Vitor Mercadante on the impact of weaning date and calf age on cow body condition score and subsequent reproductive performance. Dr. Mercadante is a beef extension specialist for Virginia Tech.

Buckingham residents can bring in the holiday season with The Ball Brothers Concert, a Christian gospel musical quartet, to be held on Thursday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. at Appomattox County High School. Doors open at 6 p.m. Children aged 12 and under are free. Proceeds benefit the Habitat for Humanity in Appomattox. Last year, several Buckingham groups attended and thoroughly enjoyed this musical concert. Tickets can be purchased on ITickets.com or call (434) 352-7817.

Come mingle with Peter Francisco Soil & Water Conservation District and their partnering agencies about what programs to offer the residents in Buckingham and Cumberland counties. Peter Francisco Soil & Water Conversation District Holiday Open House will be held on Friday, Dec.13, from 11a.m.-3 p.m. There will be holiday goodies and finger foods served throughout the day. Partnering agencies include Farm Service Agency, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Virginia Dept. of Forestry, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and Virginia State Parks (Bear Creek and James River).

SHERRI WISE is the columnist for the Buckingham Bulletin. She can be reached at wise.buckingham@gmail.com.