Program Information

Professor Brad explains the importance of beef to Virginia. With 700,000 head of beef cattle, Virginia is the 18th largest beef producing state in the nation, and the 3rd largest farm sector in Virginia behind broiler chickens and dairy calves.

ABCs of Agriculture informs about Virginia's farming community and how it affects you. ABCs of Agriculture are produced by the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) - an educational program which encourages and enhances agricultural literacy in Grades K-5 and 6-8.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the ABC’s of Agriculture! We’re here today to talk about the letter B, for beef cattle.

Virginia has about 700-thousand head of beef cattle, making us the 18th largest beef state in the nation. It’s the third largest farm sector in the state, behind broiler chickens and milk.

Keeping beef cows is a tradition dating back to Colonial days. While they are an important part of Virginia farm operations, most Virginia cattlemen or cattlewomen work off the farm and keep their animals for extra income.

You’ll find beef cattle all over Virginia, except for a few parts of the Eastern Shore. The top beef counties are Rockingham, Augusta, Fauquier, Washington and Bedford. There are 23,000 farms in Virginia that have beef cattle on them.

In case you’re wondering, the average beef cow will make 720 quarter-pound hamburger patties. That’s enough for a family of four to have a picnic every night for almost six months!

As well as tasting good, beef is also a good source of iron, zinc and protein, and vitamin B.

For the ABC’s of Agriculture, I’m Professor Brad! See you next time!

Virginia Standards