Sunbelt Ag Expo announces Virginia Farmer of the Year

LOUISA COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- The Sunbelt Ag Expo has announced a Louisa County rancher as 2025's Virginia Farmer of the Year.

Steve Hopkins hails from a family of farmers that goes back seven generations. Hopkins and his sons run Riverview Farms Cattle operations on 1200+ acres of cattle, crops and poultry in Louisa County.

Hopkins graduated from Virginia Tech before working at Virginia Cooperative Extension while farming part-time with his dad and brother. In 2017, he bought out their shares and brought his sons on as partners.

Riverview Farms Cattle grows hay, corn and sorghum for its 300 head of cows, 300 head of custom-fed bulls and 153,000 head of turkeys. Hopkins also owns a consulting business that he founded in 1998, Central Virginia Cattlemen, for which he serves as marketing director.

"Steve has always been a proven leader in the beef cattle industry in Virginia, both through his work as a county extension agent and as a farmer who, with his two talented sons, maintains one of the largest commercial cattle operations in our area of the state," said Charles Rosson, who nominated Hopkins as Virginia Farmer of the Year. "By careful marketing strategies, expansion of acreage, use of cutting edge technology, diversifying, and generational planning, Steve has always been at the forefront of innovation. And his civic and agricultural leadership has been exemplary. His wife, Crysti, is the glue that holds the family farm together with a steady financial hand and just by being a loving wife and mother."

A panel of judges will visit Hopkins, and six others nominated as State Farmers of the Year, in early August to decide the Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year. To learn more about the award, visit the website.