Virginia Tech Tidewater AREC

🌱 Virginia farmers: Your input matters! 🌱

Last December, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) began a review of the Agriculture Best Management Practices Cost Share Program—administered by your local Soil and Water Conservation District. Now, they want to hear directly from you.

This program plays an important role in supporting conservation on working farms, and farmer feedback is critical to its future. JLARC is gathering input to better understand awareness of the program and participation in conservation practices.

✅ This is a different survey than the recent Chesapeake Bay conservation practices survey
⏱ Takes about 15–20 minutes to complete
🔒 Confidential—no personal identifying info collected (only locality)
📅 Deadline: August 3, 2026

If you’ve participated in the program—or even if you haven’t—your perspective is valuable. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and encourage other farmers to do the same.

📢 Survey link is in the comments!

🥜 A new publication from Maria Balota, Abhilash Kumar Chandel, Matthew Chappell, Pius Jjagwe, and David Langston provides fresh insight into how prohexadione calcium (PC) performs in Virginia‑type peanut production. Their two‑year study at Tidewater AREC shows that while PC didn’t affect maturity or seed size, it boosted yields for certain cultivars during 2023’s wetter growing season—highlighting how weather patterns and site‑cultivar combinations shape PC response in the field.

Read the full publication here: https://peanutscience.com/article/id/1670/

The soybean team was back in the field this afternoon, planting double‑crop beans into wheat fields harvested earlier this week. Technician Chris Buck behind the wheel, Graduate Student Reagan Riggs on the planter, and guidance from Soybean Agronomist Carrie Ortel kept things running smoothly. 🌱

Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Virginia Cooperative Extension
Virginia Soybean Association