A new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows the number of Virginia farms remained the same from last year, bucking a national trend of farm declines.
According to the recently released USDA Farms and Land in Farms 2022 Summary report, the total number of farms in Virginia in 2022 was 41,500, unchanged from 2021. The total Virginia land in farms also remained unchanged from the previous year, with 7.7 million acres and an average farm size of 186 acres in 2022.
“The number of Virginia farms has been trending lower since at least 2012, so maintaining the number of farms in 2022 is good,” said Tony Banks, senior assistant director of agriculture, development and innovation for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “It may speak well of our diversity among the numerous farm types here, or it may be a reflection of improvements in on-farm gross margins coming out of state and federal COVID-19 response.”
While the commonwealth’s unchanged farm and farmland numbers are welcome news, i...