Last year’s enormous agricultural commodity price drops due to the COVID-19 pandemic were a “black swan” event, said Dr. David Kohl, Virginia Tech professor emeritus of agricultural finance and small business management.
Rain-saturated soil may have interrupted the plantings of winter small grains in Virginia, but farmers report crop conditions so far are good.
Frequent, heavy storms between May 14 and May 20 delayed fieldwork on Virginia farms and had some impact on recently planted corn and soybeans and nearly mature small grains.
At Wood Ridge Farm in Nelson County, growing barley is the first important step in a hands-on process by which Barry Wood oversees production of craft-brewed beers served at his Wood Ridge Farm Brewery.
Virginia barley and winter wheat harvests have been on a downward trend for several years, and 2016 was an especially disappointing one for growers.