Tractors drone in the distance as inmates advance in a slow, dusty line bending and picking squash under the August sun.

They are not under the guns of granite-faced, rifle-toting officers on horseback watching through mirrored sunglasses. The staff is on foot and unarmed, and the low-security prisoners are not chained to one another.

The Virginia Department of Corrections has nearly 160 acres of crops growing at Yarden Farm, about 50 miles south of Richmond, just a small RT-D
FIRST part of the most diverse -- if not largest -- agricultural enterprise in the state.

About 10,000 acres across Virginia are under cultivation or in use as pasture in an expanding effort to employ prisoners and control the cost of feeding 30,000 of them, a population far larger than Fredericksburg's.

The statewide agricultural operation saves Virginia taxpayers about $6 million per year, said William H. Gillette, the agribusiness manager for the state prison system.

"As far as I know, we are the only [prison] program in the country that can handle -- statewide -- fresh produce, frozen produce, meat and milk, all of it delivered to any institution in less than 24 hours," Gillette said.

. . .

All of the dairy, pork, beef and fish consumed by inmates is produced or otherwise handled by the program, which officials say nearly has doubled its sales in the past five years.

Crops include: hay, feed and sweet corn, apples, tomatoes, broccoli, squash, beans, peppers, asparagus, cantaloupes, watermelons, pumpkins, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, kale, collards, strawberries and soybeans.

In addition to dairy cows, they also raise beef cattle and pigs -- the animals are sold on the open market, and the department buys less-expensive turkey and pork parts to manufacture "portion-controlled" servings said to be healthier and less expensive.

There is an expanding frozen-food operation; two milkand juice-processing plants; a produce sorting and distribution center; a small fleet of trucks and a maintenance shop; three sawmills; 30 greenhouses to start plants; hydroponics for year-round growing; two meat-processing plants; and more than 200 beehives for crop pollination and honey.

The three-year-old produce-distribution center, or "farmers market," in Jarratt handles inmate-grown crops as well as produce purchased on the open market.

Much of the construction needed for new facilities has been performed by inmates. Ron Lintz, who runs the farmers market in Jarratt, said, "We have some talented individuals locked up here in the state. . . . It's saved a lot of money."

Gillette said the department's agribusiness program employs about 1,000 inmates who earn up to 45 cents an hour. Much of the work is simple labor, but many inmates learn skills and gain experience that can get them employment on the outside.

Some operate forklifts, apply pesticides, or operate tractors and other heavy equipment. Others work in greenhouses, nurseries and dairies.

. . .

Richard Bartole, 34, is an unlikely dairy farmer. His voice still carries the streets of hometown, Teaneck, N.J. The James River Correctional Center Work Center in Goochland County now is home while he serves a 12-year sentence for fraud and other crimes.

"I'd never been close to a cow. . . . I'd never been near a tractor before I came here," he said.

Now he cares for dairy cows "from birth to breeding," on workdays that can last 14 hours. But, Bartole says, "I like it."

He believes he is learning skills he can use once he is released. "I can milk them. I can feed them. I can raise the calves. We learn construction. We can work the farm equipment -- everything" he said.

Robert Trimmer, the dairy manager at James River, laughed and said the cows aren't just known by the numbered tags on their ears. "I can honestly tell you, Bartole names all of them."

Trimmer said the calves are the replacements for the dairy herd. "It's real important that [Bartole] does his job every day," said Trimmer.

James River inmates milk 133 cows three times a day, seven days a week. The milk is pasteurized, mixed with powdered milk and water to make it 1 percent milk fat, refrigerated and packaged in 8-ounce servings, all in the same building.

Each inmate in the system, in 42 institutions scattered across the state, gets two servings of milk a day.

Frank Baber III, the agribusiness manager at James River, said inmates are assigned various jobs when they are sent to the work camp, and some are sent to the dairy. "Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Can't everybody milk cows," he said.

Baber said he has one of the top-producing dairy herds in the state, a credit to the dairy's small staff in addition to the inmates. The department's two dairies -- the other is at Bland Correctional Center -- produce 1.2 million gallons of milk a year.

. . .

The nearby James River Correctional Center is home to one of two meat-processing plants run by the department.

The plant can take pork or turkey scraps and turn them into meat servings that are all the same size. "That way they won't fight each other over them," Gillette quipped.

One of the employees at the James River plant, Maurice Greenhow, 43, of Williamsburg, replaced an inmate who got a job with Smithfield Packing Co. Inc. after leaving prison. Greenhow has learned quality control and how to process meats hygienically.

"There's just so much. . . . I learned even to operate and work on different types of machinery," he said. "I love it," he said of the work.

Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreen@timesdispatch.com.