Corn, soybean production up in Virginia

Virginia's top industry is now at the time of year where most money is made, as farmers across the Commonwealth are harvesting crops. And according to experts, it's a fantastic year.

According to the Virginia Farm Bureau the Commonwealth's top two crops, corn and soybeans, are growing this year, with 11 and 9 percent increases in bushels from last year, respectively.

"Here in the New River Valley, it's been a good crop season, we've been greatly blessed. We had good growing conditions, adequate moisture, and things have just come together to make it a good season for us," Floyd Childress of Childress Farms said.

Farmers say the leading cause of success is good weather. This summer had good rainflow, until August when things dried up.

"By then the corn that we grow for our cows had already produced. Where it did hurt us would be in the pastures and grazing for our animals," Casey Phillips of Phillips Dairy said.

Other farmers, like Childress, had to make it through because he has yet to harvest the corn he will sell to markets.

"We had pretty good moisture reserves in our soils, which helped us get through that and our temperatures weren't so awfully hot, which also works against good planting," Childress said.

Despite being able to overcome the weather issues, there are still other challenges farmers will face after harvesting their crops.

"Corn prices, wheat prices, soybean prices, mile prices, cattle prices are all down considerably so our big challenge is marketing our crop and getting as much as we can for it," Childress said.

These farmers tell me they're already planning for next year. They hope to spend less so they grow their revenue.

"That's one of those things that you love and hate about agriculture. You can have an excellent crop growing season and then your end market kind of falls out, but we always have hope for better," Phillips said.