“Agriculture is a very large industry in Orange County,” Agricultural Extension Agent Steve Hopkins told the LOW Democratic Club at its meeting on April 21. “And it’s getting bigger.”
Mr. Hopkins and Kaci Daniel, 4-H Extension agent, gave club members an overview of local agriculture and described the wide variety of services that the Cooperative Extension Service provides to farmers, gardeners, homemakers and young people.
In terms of sales, Orange has the seventh largest agricultural economy of Virginia’s 100 counties.
The largest agricultural enterprise in the county is the nursery and greenouse industry, Mr. Hopkins said. Two large nursery operations — Battlefield Farms and American Color — helped nurseries overtake cattle raising as the top agricultural enterprise locally.
Total farms in the county are up 9 percent in the past five years, while the acreage devoted to farming is up 4 percent. Receipts from crops increased an impressive 163 percent during that period.
Ms. Daniel reminded her audience that farmers are not the only citizens who benefit from Extension Service programs. She cited education programs on nutrition, health, fitness, personal finance, food preservation, consumer skills, restaurant food safety, landscaping and youth development, including the ever popular 4-H Clubs.
The speakers distributed a valuable summary of the current state of agriculture in Orange County. More information about the Extension Service is available online at the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service Web site.
The Extension Service’s programs in Virginia are based at the Commonwealth’s two land-grant universities, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and Virginia State University in Petersburg.
