Knowledge Center Blog

The State Fair of Virginia starts this coming Friday!  For many 4-H and FFA kids, this is the culmination of their work all year – to show their projects at the State Fair.  This could be produce they’ve grown, food they’ve made, photographs they’ve taken, arts or crafts they’ve created, or livestock they have raised and worked with.
 

Let's face it, beginning a farm or agribusiness is tough.  There are many different factors to consider, and it can be costly.   Fortunately there are resources available that can help.  We'll be sharing some different resources periodically on this blog.  This week, we'd like to share a great resource from North Carolina's Cooperative Extension on Decision Making.

In both Virginia and West Virginia, the average age of a farmer is now over 59 years old.  In Virginia, 36% of farmers are over 65 years old.  For many farming operations, this means that the farm will be transitioning from one generation to the next, or one owner to another, in the next 10 years.

Although summer is coming to an end, there are still plenty of fruits and vegetables that are in season in the area.  Not sure what is in season locally?  Here is a great resource where you can look up your location, the time of year, or a specific type of produce to learn more about what is in season when.  Information available includes a brief description of the product, a picture, and the seasonality. 

Long days, hard work, hot summers, cold winters.  No matter what they grow, farmers work hard year round to produce the best crop they can.  Livestock producers, grain farmers, cotton farmers, vegetable producers…the product doesn’t matter.  There is work to do each and every day on each of these types of operations, and a long list of things that they have to take into consideration and be prepared for.  Seed, feed and fertilizer costs; the current market price for their product; labor, sick animals, potential pest infestations (weeds, bugs or fungus) and much more are everyday concerns for farmers.  They can be inconvenient or even downright frustrating, but they are all on the list of potential problems.