Coming up: National Ag Week and Virginia Agriculture Week

Will Sanderson of Cumberland County raises breeder and broiler chickens with his wife and their four children (Photo by Maria LaLima, Virginia Farm Bureau).

U.S. farmers and others with ties to agriculture will observe National Ag Week 2012 from March 4 through March 10. By proclamation of Gov. Bob McDonnell, Virginia Agriculture Week will run concurrently with that.

Findings from 2010, the most recent year for which stats are available at this time, Virginia has 47,300 farms and not quite 8.1 million acres of farmland. The average Virginia farm is 170 acres, which is smaller than the national average. The average annual market value of products sold from a Virginia farm is $61,334.

Top cropland uses according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture* are forage (hay for livestock), soybeans, corn for grain, wheat and corn for silage (stored to feed livestock).

At the top of the state’s livestock inventory were 43.7 million broiler and other meat-type chickens, 6.3 million turkeys, 3.2 million laying hens, 1.6 head of cattle and 1.2 pullet (young) hens raised for laying flocks.

About 20,000 Virginia farmers identify their primary occupation as farming.

The average principal farm operator in Virginia is 58.2 years old. Eighty-three percent of principal farm operators are men, and 17 percent are women.

* The Census of Agriculture is conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The 2012 census will be conducted in 2013 and based on U.S. farm production for this year.