Natalina Sents, a recent agricultural business graduate from Iowa State University, has embarked on a year-long trip to learn about why farmers farm in all 50 states. Virginia is the 10th state she has visited.

The heat is on for Virginia farmers as summertime temperatures and weather patterns settle in. Many growers are welcoming the warmth after a wetter-than-average spring and freeze damage in April.

In a few days, we’ll celebrate the 240th anniversary of the stand our founding fathers took with the Declaration of Independence. Some of those founding fathers were also founding farmers who, along with the founding mothers, had a tangible stake in the fight for independence. They were already committed to raising products that would make the United States self-sufficient at home and a desirable trading partner abroad.

Homegrown By Heroes, a branding program created in late 2013 by the Farmer Veteran Coalition and supported by the American Farm Bureau Federation, is helping veteran farmers promote their agricultural products.

Prices at Virginia farmers’ markets have held the line against inflation for the past five years, according to an analysis of prices for 18 common items compiled by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Virginia is home to more than 250 wineries, and there’s a Virginia wine for every taste and occasion.

Farmers in some parts of Virginia have been experiencing one of the rainiest months of May on record, and they’re finding it difficult to keep their spirits afloat when so much fieldwork has been put on hold.

It’s been more than a year since corn and wheat prices took a tumble on the Chicago Board of Trade. Milk prices took a steep nose dive last November, and cattle prices have been dropping fast since last July.

There’s risk every spring that a hard freeze will kill tender fruit blossoms. Virginia apple and peach growers are familiar with that risk; most are in mountainous areas in the western part of the state, where cold temperatures linger into spring.

Virginia’s dairy industry faces a tough year ahead. “It’s going to be a tough year for the dairy sector with probably the lowest prices since 2010,” predicted Dr. John Anderson, American Farm Bureau Federation’s deputy chief economist.