Governor Glenn Youngkin awards Rockingham Cooperative AFID grant

DAYTON, Va. (WHSV) - Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin was in Rockingham County Tuesday afternoon to give an economic development announcement.

Governor Youngkin, along with the Virginia Department of Agriculture, awarded Rockingham Cooperative a grant to expand the Dayton Mill.

Rockingham Cooperative was awarded the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund, better known as “AFID.”

“17 million dollars that’s gonna renovate and expand the feed mill, 17 million dollars that’s in fact gonna enable the co-operative to purchase nearly 12 million dollars worth of Virginia grown grain,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in his speech to the co-op.

Virginia is celebrating Agriculture Week and Keith Turner, feed division manager at Rockingham Cooperative, said this grant couldn’t have come at a better time.

“Rockingham County is the number one agriculture county in Virginia and we need to provide an infrastructure for farmers,” Turner said.

“It’ll increase efficiency, it will decrease operational costs so that in fact Virginians benefit,” Youngkin said.

The ground will soon be broken on an expansion of the Dayton Mill and a solar farm that the governor says will save $800,000 in energy costs over the next ten years.

Jeff Patterson, president of the Rockingham Co-op board, said upgrades to the mill will increase the output of feed and allow them to better serve other communities.

“The investment that we’re making in the Dayton Feed Mill is really an investment in the infrastructure of Virginia agriculture,” Turner said.

Turner also said farmers are the backbone of Rockingham County and feeding people is important to the cooperative.

“Rockingham Cooperative is a resource to the farmers in Rockingham County and beyond throughout the state of Virginia,” Turner said.

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