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Southwest Virginia Lags
Behind Northern Counties
In Livestock Production
Southwest Virginia, heretofore regarded as the leading cattle production area 'in the State, was Outstripped by the uppejr Vialley and northern counties in 1949.
J. D. Johnson, associate agricultural economist for Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, says the 1950 census revealed the “surprising fact” that the income from cattle and calves sold by farmers in northern counties exceeded that received by southwest Virginia farmers by more than $3,000,000.
Income in Loudoun aiyl Fauquier counties combined was equal • to 52 per cent of the total income from sales of cattle and calves in all 17 counties of southwest Virginia.
Another gratifying fact revealed by the census, particularly from the standpoint of farm efficiency, is that the average sise; of Virginia cattle farms is. becoming larger as a result of com solidation of some of the smaller farm units. During the periods from 1945 to 1950, cattle numbers in the State increased 49,900, up 18 per cent; while the number of farms producing cattle declined by more than 3,000, down 7% per cent. This trend was particularly pronounced in the northern counties, where 14 per cent . fewer farmers reported 21 per cent more cattle on farms in 1950 than in 1945.
Income from cattle and calves sold in 1949 by farmers in both southwestern and northern count ties, amounted to more than 61 per cent of the State’s total income from this source. Ranked in order of the amount of income from that source, the three lead- . ing counties in the northern wear-1 are Loudoun, Fauquier, and Rockingham. The three leading southwestern counties are Washington,.^ Russell, and Tasewell. ^
When the income from sales of all livestock products is considered, including- milk, eggs, and poultry, the importance of northern counties is again shown, Johnson says. In 1949, the northern area received $60,009,900 from; sales, of all livestock, slightly more than double the income in the southwest. -
With the exception of the urban county of Arlington, all of the 15 counties in the north showed increases in the number of cattle and calves on farms during the five year period ending in 1950. Clarke, Madison, Page, and Warren counties had increases exceeding 30 per cent, Rappahan
52.2%