COURTLAND—Southampton County Extension Agent Chris Drake made a presentation to the Board of Supervisors Monday night, giving an overview of the programming his office provided for area producers and agribusinesses in 2012.

Southampton County had agricultural sales of approximately $50 million, with 93,000 acres in row crop production. The top crops in terms of acreage were cotton, soybeans, wheat, corn, and peanuts. This past year produced a record-breaking cotton and peanut crop, with unprecedented yield levels in both crops. Southampton County was number one in the state, in terms of the number of acreage of cotton and peanuts and number two in acreage for soybeans.

The county extension agency has been very busy with many different projects. Some of those projects include: Cotton Variety Trials (4), Corn Variety Trials, Wheat Variety Trials, Soybean Variety Trial, Beet Armyworm Monitoring, newsletters, soil sampling, corn earworm monitoring, plastic pesticide container recycling, cotton/peanut awards banquet and coordinating the Southampton County Fair field crops and horticulture exhibits.

In regard to soil samples, Drake said that Southampton County sent in more soil samples than any other county in the state, with Virginia Tech processing 4,464 samples from area producers.

Drake’s office also assisted with the waste oil-recycling program, which resulted in nearly 1,750 gallons of used motor oil being collected from county farmers to be recycled.

A peanut/cotton producers award banquet was held, with a huge turnout, said Drake.

He maintained that of the 96 in attendance, there were 16 two-ton winners in 2012 and five growers made the 5,000 pound club for peanut production; and 28 growers received certificates for two-bale/acre average cotton production.

He concluded by thanking the supervisors for supporting Cooperative Extension.