Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Working in the new agriculture center, Ferrum professor Brian Whitaker (left) holds a sheep for agribusiness student Chuck English.

Ferrum College's new center consists of a new barn, a greenhouse and garden plots.

George Byrd, Ferrum's ag program coordinator, removes stakes from a garden plot.

Some hope that the new facilities and hands-on work will expand the program's visibility.

FERRUM -- Thanks to an alumnus, agriculture students at Ferrum College have a new, hands-on classroom.

The Titmus Agricultural Center, named after Edward "Hutty" Titmus, officially opened last month and includes a new barn, a greenhouse and garden plots.

Recent agriculture graduate Amy Hoback hopes the new center and future programs put Ferrum College on the map. Its benefits to the school and community will make others want to get their degree from Ferrum, she said.

"Students need to know that there are colleges and universities other than Virginia Tech where they can study agriculture," Titmus said in a news release. "This space will provide Ferrum students an area where they can develop practical skills that will help prepare them for a wide variety of career opportunities."

The new accommodations have taken agriculture students from a renovated horse barn with dirt floors to a more modern facility with concrete floors and numerous stalls. It also moves the classroom closer to about 15 acres of pasture where the animals are kept, centralizing most of the department's resources.

"Before we had the new center, we had an old barn the maintenance department was slowly taking over," junior agribusiness student Kelly Holland said. "The barn was very cramped because of the number of animals in the barn."

Students also relied on books and were rarely able to practice what they read, student Jacob Whitten said.

During the school year, the barn will house cattle, sheep and horses.

While students have begun to use the barn, work continues. A bathroom and office will be added to the inside, and fencing and a livestock sorting and restraining system are planned for outside the barn, animal science professor Brian Whitaker said.

Titmus' relationship with his alma mater has been ongoing, Ferrum spokeswoman Natalie Faunce said. In the past, he donated a dairy farm to the college. When the school sold the farm in 2000 for $235,000, it used the money for scholarships and other needs within the agriculture department. With Titmus' blessing, some of the money from the sale of the dairy farm was used for the new barn, Faunce said.

Also on the site of the new center is a greenhouse donated by the Rocky Mount Wal-Mart a few years ago, biology and horticulture professor Bob Pohlad said.

The greenhouse is used for student projects and the annual plant sale. It will also be a centerpiece in its sustainability project next year, Pohlad said. Students will grow vegetables that will be used in the school cafeteria.

Plans for a future orchard and vineyard are also in the works, he said.

Every agriculture and horticulture class will work in the new center, Whitaker said. Students studying other curriculums -- including biology and environmental science -- will also use the facility.

The only trend with the agriculture program's enrollment over the years is that there is no trend, Whitaker said. Enrollment varies from year to year.

But that could change.

"With the new center, we can focus more on the hands-on part of the curriculum," Whitten said. "And more than anything we now have the facilities and area to expand the horticulture and agriculture departments and recruit more students."