Governor Ralph Northam today announced the availability of $73 million to protect water and soil health through the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program, which represents the largest-ever investment of state funding to assist farmers implementing conservation practices. The program has been updated to provide greater flexibility and reduce barriers to farmer participation.
“This historic investment is exactly the type of commitment we need to ensure more producers can participate in the Commonwealth’s cost-share program to implement conservation practices and continue improving water quality in Virginia,” said Governor Northam. “Whether growing crops, raising cattle, or producing poultry, agricultural best management practices are important tools that can benefit Virginia farms while also helping keep pollution out of our streams and the Chesapeake Bay.”
A workshop on integrated predator management will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Randolph Farm Pavilion, 4415 River Road, Petersburg, Va. A diverse panel of speakers from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the USDA Wildlife Services Program will discuss the biology and management practices for wildlife species that affect agriculture in central Virginia. Presentations will include information on geese, vultures, and feral swine; coyote and furbearer biology; bear management in Virginia; and livestock protection methods.
First responders will soon get the chance to learn about handling livestock during natural or man-made disasters.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has announced that USDA will take several actions to assist farmers in response to trade damage from retaliation and trade disruptions. Up to $16 billion will be available for direct payments to farmers, commodity purchases and promotion programs. $14.5 billion will be spent on direct payments, with $1.4 billion being used for food purchase programs and $100 million for new export market promotion programs. Foreign donations of commodities are not part of this effort. Funds for this program will come from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).
During the next several weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will conduct two major mid-year surveys, the June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey. The agency will survey 2,000 farms across Virginia to determine crop production and supplies levels in 2019.
Virginia farmers earned $4 billion from the sale of all agriculture products in 2017, and half of that income was generated in the state’s top 10 ag counties, according to recently released findings from the 2017 Census of Agriculture.
Two in five rural adults say stress and mental health have become more of a problem in their communities in the past five years, according to a recent Morning Consult poll sponsored by the 
