A golden harvest in the Northern Neck

BY FRANK DELANO

Farmers with questions about corn stood at the door of Michael I. Newsome's office.

Newsome's telephone and cell phone rang. His two-way radio squawked. Truck after truck loaded with corn rolled past his office window.

"I'm doing 40 things at one time," said Newsome, manager of a Perdue Farms granary in Tappahannock.

About 150 trucks a day from farms as far as 40 miles away will dump about 5 million bushels of corn into Newsome's tanks this season, he said.

All of it will be barged down the Rappahannock River and then either across the Chesapeake Bay to Perdue's poultry farms or down the bay to Norfolk for export, he said.

The streams of corn now flowing into area granaries will become part of a river of corn estimated at 37 million bushels flowing this year from Virginia.

In all, says the National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. farmers will produce an ocean of 12 billion bushels of corn on 87 million acres, an area three times as big as Virginia.

"It's nothing special. It's an average crop," said Newsome.

The NASS estimates Virginia corn growers will average 104 bushels per acre this year, compared with 85 bushels in last year's drought.

"Early corn looks really good," said Jack Inskeep, who raises several hundred acres of corn at the southern end of Culpeper County. "I'd say our crop is average or better."

"This is a good crop," said Brad Rosenberger, who farms in northern Culpeper. "If we don't get any flooding rains or high wind, we should do OK."

"We're going to make some money, but we're not going to make a killing," said Johnny Jones, whose family grows 476 acres of corn in Westmoreland County. The family also runs a granary near Montross.

"But all that shines isn't gold," he said. "Even though the price of corn is better than $5 a bushel, some farmers are still cutting corn to sell at $3-per-bushel contracts from last year."

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Local Farm Report

U.S. farmers will produce about 12 billion bushels of corn this year. That's enough to cover the 10.52 square miles of the city of Fredericksburg to a depth of about 50 feet. For a county-by-county breakdown of recent local corn harvests, see BACK PAGE.

CAROLINE

The Caroline County Board of Supervisors has asked Gov. Tim Kaine to declare the county a drought disaster area, in hopes of receiving $6.5 million in federal assistance.

Extension Agent Mac Saphir said bands of rain coming through the region fell on either side of Caroline, leaving most farms without enough water. He estimates a 40 percent loss in soybeans, a 40 percent to 50 percent loss in corn and a 60 percent loss in pasture and hay.

Saphir said that even if the aid request is approved, it won't be enough to cover the losses because commodity prices have either "double or tripled" in the past year.

CULPEPER

Two of Culpeper County's largest corn producers don't expect record yields, but they agree that this will be a good harvest.

Jack Inskeep and Brad Rosenberger described this year's crop as average or slightly better. But Rosenberger said farmers in southern Fauquier County are not faring as well. They planted late because of spring rains and then were hit with dry weather in late July and August, he said.

KING GEORGE

Extension Agent Regina Prunty said King George County's corn yields could be down as much as 15 percent to 20 percent. Hay yields are down as well. She said soybeans have been the most affected by the weather, but she was not sure how badly.

Prunty said crops have to suffer at least a 35 percent loss before a county requests disaster relief, but she wouldn't rule out the possibility of such a request.

ORANGE

It has been an average year for corn in Orange County, according to Extension Agent Steve Hopkins.

"The early corn was fairly good," he said, "but the late corn was poor. The late corn wasn't far enough along to get it through the dry spell."

Corn isn't a big farm commodity in Orange. Greenhouses and nurseries are the leaders in gross receipts, followed by beef cattle and wineries.

SPOTSYLVANIA

Extension Agent John Howe said rain distribution in Spotsylvania County was not uniform and was lacking at key times in the growing process, and that hurt the county's two chief crops: corn and soybeans.

"I think we are going to have corn yields of 70 [percent] to 80 percent of normal. Soybeans could be down to 60 percent of normal yields," Howe said.

Farmers were also hurt by the rising cost of fertilizer. "In the end, I think they may handle more money, but have relatively the same exact profits," Howe said. "Some may experience a loss relative to what it cost to produce."

STAFFORD

Howe said the lengthy dry spell in July and August hurt Stafford County's corn and soybean harvests.

Stafford's harvests are usually modest compared with neighboring counties', but will still take a hit from the drought. Howe expects a 35 percent to 40 percent drop in corn yields, along with a 40 percent to 45 percent drop in soybeans.

Date published: 9/20/2008

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