Agriculture is Virginia’s largest private industry – by far. As a whole, it contributes $70 billion to the state’s economy every year.
According to the latest data from the USDA’s Economic Research Service (Aug. 30, 2019), these are the state’s top grossing products right now, also known as farm cash receipts:
*All numbers rounded to the nearest thousand
- Broilers (chickens) $935 million
- Cattle and calves $413 million
- Miscellaneous crops $306 million
- Dairy products/Milk $285 million
- Turkeys $236 million
- Soybeans $225 million
- All other animals and products ¹ $215 million
- Corn (for grain) $175 million
- Floriculture $146 million
- Hay $118 million
- Eggs (chickens) $101 million
- Tobacco $97 million
- Cotton lint $64 million
- Hogs $44 million
- Wheat $43 million
- Apples $37 million
- Peanuts $26 million
- Tomatoes $22 million
- Potatoes $19 million
- Pumpkins $11 million
¹All Other Animals includes horses, aquaculture and other misc. animals
This is the first year that pumpkins entered the Top 20 list. The 2018 crop brought in $10,343,000 in cash receipts from 3,500 harvest acres of commercial pumpkins. This does not include those grown for pick-your-own patches. It is also the first year for Floriculture, or flower farming, which debuted at #9. Flower agritourism is also growing in Virginia, with cut-your-own farms, sunflower mazes and educational events such as floral arranging or flower teas.
Crops and animals that just missed the list include trout, honey, barley and mink pelts.
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