Accomack County leads Virginia in corn and soybean production

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced that Accomack County leads Virginia in corn and soybean production.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released corn and soybean county estimates from the 2016. Corn and soybeans, which are Virginia’s top cash crops, brought in nearly $361 million in cash in 2015.

“Accomack County led the state in corn and soybean production, with more than 2.8 million bushels of corn and just over 1.2 million bushels of soybeans,” said Herman Ellison, Virginia state statistician with NASS. “The weather was up and down throughout the growing season, but yields were still respectable. The prolonged August dry spell robbed yield potential, especially for full season soybeans. On the other hand, rain in September improved double crop bean yields. Corn yields tended to be above the five-year average, while soybean yields were generally below.”

Accomack County produced a total of 2,803,000 bushels of corn, harvested from 17,700 acres. The county produced a total of 1,205,000 bushels of soybeans, harvested from 34,100 acres.

Virginia farmers harvested 50.32 million bushels of corn and 21.6 million bushels of soybeans during the 2016 harvest.