Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on Jan. 17 the distribution of $1.2 million in farmland preservation grants from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to 13 localities.

The good news is there are plenty of eager young farmers ready and willing to take a stab at making a living in agriculture.

Virginia’s Farm Link program is a decade old, and Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers are working to reboot the program and encourage more farmers and would-be farmers to get connected.

A new workbook to help farmers plan the transition of a farm or forest property from one generation to another is available from Virginia Cooperative Extension.

In the interest of keeping farms in production, Virginia Farm Bureau helped to develop the state’s Farm Link program. 

A website that celebrates U.S. farms operated by the same families for 100 years or more has launched at agricultureslastingheritage.org.

Eight Virginia localities have received grant funding from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to help preserve farmland with permanent conservation easements.

While farmland values have declined in the past few years in Central Virginia, farm real estate remains a strong investment opportunity, according to a Virginia land broker and news articles in Progressive Farmer magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

A struggling program to preserve farmland in Virginia celebrated a small victory Sept. 9 when 300 acres of land belonging to Edward "Jerry" Silver and his wife, Victoria, were accepted into Stafford County’s new Purchase of Development Rights program.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced earlier this month that loss of farmland to development appears to be slowing in the commonwealth.

Efforts under way to help preserve Virginia farmland will be highlighted in the July edition of Down Home Virginia, Virginia Farm Bureau’s monthly television program.