Farm Credit of the Virginias, Virginia Farm Bureau and MidAtlantic Farm Credit hosted Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline in the Shenandoah Valley for a farm tour and roundtable discussion last week.
From rising input costs, supply chain difficulties and Farm Bill considerations, Farm Credit customers and other agriculture leaders, including Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Joe Guthrie, relayed their questions and concerns to Cline during Wednesday’s roundtable.
In addition to learning more about how Virginians are faring in today’s volatile agriculture economy, Chief Marketing & External Affairs Officer Katie Frazier spoke to the significance of federal support in helping producers with their transition planning as well as the ways Farm Credit institutions support producers, including young, beginning, small and minority-owned operations.
“Farm Credit is doing a great job of helping agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley,” Cline said. “The ability of one generation to pass their farm on to the next generation and continue farming depends on their access to reliable credit and resources. And Farm Credit has been there to ensure a viable future for family farms.”
According to Virginia Farm Bureau National Affairs Coordinator Ben Rowe, having strong partnerships at the local level can help producers grow and develop their operations.
“The building we visited [on last week’s farm tour] is a good physical representation of why relationships and collaboration are so important,” Rowe said. “As the Virginia agriculture industry grows, modernizes and adapts to meet consumer demand—we have to have good partnerships between our producers and lenders so projects like the barn at Hillview Farm can be a reality.”
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