A Virginia farmer faces a tumultuous season, future

U.S. tariffs and immigration enforcement have challenged Virginia farmers as the harvest season ends. For one Virginia farmer, the next season seems uncertain.

Story and photographs by Christopher Tyree

Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO

Kenney Barnard, 75, center, and farm worker Michael Mazejak watch a machine siphon wheat seed out of one of Barnard’s silos. He’s selling this seed to clear the silo to store his harvest of soybeans. Low prices for soybeans this year followed the Trump Administration's tariff war with China.

Harvesting soybeans for an unsettled market

Kenney Barnard, left, and farm worker Rocky Magness, discuss the farm’s harvest of soybeans this year. While not a bumper crop, this year’s harvest turned out to be pretty decent Barnard said. The question remains as to whether the crop will be profitable.

“I'm not very optimistic about anything the government has to do,” said Barnard. “They tell you one thing and then do something else most of the time.”

Rocky Magness, one of Barnard’s farm workers, steers the farm's combine through fields of soy beans in early November. Barnard purchased this combine in 2024.

Dry soybean pods shook on their vines as Kenney Barnard’s bright red combine shuddered down his field in Amelia Court House, about 40 miles southwest of Richmond. A semi sat nearby to transport his harvest of this vital commodity, Virginia’s largest agricultural export.

Unlike most years, the soy beans will head to an empty silo instead of a grain broker. Barnard is waiting to see how the Trump administration’s tariff policy plays out. The up-and-down negotiations between the U.S. and China, the largest buyer of American soybeans, have shaken the grain markets.

For more than 50 years, Barnard, 75, has farmed the rich soils of his Hoot Owl Hollow Farm, growing tobacco, corn, and soybeans among other crops, as well as raising cattle. The toil of the land is evidenced in his callused hands and sun-aged skin.

But while farming is often unpredictable, this year Barnard and his fellow farmers are facing an unsettled future due to Trump’s positions on tariffs and his crackdown on immigration.

China imports nearly 61% of the world’s production of soybeans, according to the American Soybean Association.

Virginia’s top agricultural and forestry exports in 2023 were soybeans, valued at over $1.4 billion – more than half to China, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The farming and forestry sectors make up about 9% of the Commonwealth’s GDP, contributing more than $82 billion to the economy annually, according to the Virginia Farm Bureau’s estimates.

Trump threatened an additional 100% tariffs on Chinese exports in October. China retaliated with levies on U.S. imports – and largely stopped buying soybeans from American farmers.

In November, the White House announced a reduction in tariffs on Chinese goods, but Beijing has yet to acknowledge an agreement. Between 2020 and 2024, China imported an average of 29 million tons of U.S. soybeans annually, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This year, it has imported just 332,000 tons, according to USDA data reported by the Associated Press.

Barnard, a Trump supporter, wonders if the continued trade escalation between the Trump administration and China this year might be the one that puts him out of business. He checks his phone several times a day for the latest soybean prices.

Barnard doesn’t shy from sharing his legacy as a descendant of the Confederacy. He continues to support President Trump despite the financial impacts Trump’s policies have had on his business.

Political signs for a Republican candidate are stacked against one of Barnard’s outbuildings.

“I wish Trump would just leave the tariffs alone. He should have learned the first time.”

Barnard sprays an herbicide in early November to kill off weeds before planting winter wheat on one of his many fields.

Barnard plans to store his soybean harvest in silos and hopes trade accelerates. The loss of income means he’ll have to rethink how he’ll purchase seed, fertilizer and equipment for next year.

Trump has floated a $12 billion subsidy to farmers who’ve lost out because of his tariff policies, but nothing regarding this bailout has moved forward.

“I'm not very optimistic about anything the government has to do,” said Barnard. “They tell you one thing and then do something else most of the time.”

Dust and chaff swirl around Barnard as he empties one of his six silos to make way for his soybean harvest. He hopes the trade dispute between the U.S. and China is fixed soon so he can sell this crop. The revenue will allow him to plan for the 2026 growing season.

A final tobacco harvest?

Harvesting and processing tobacco is labor-intensive and largely done by hand. Barnard has relied on the H-2A visa program since the visa program began nearly 40 years ago for workers to grow and harvest 14 acres of the cash crop. Despite the heat on a blazing August morning, Barnard’s migrant laborers cover their faces to shield their identities.

On a hot August morning, Barnard pulled his pickup to one of the fields he leases near his farm. Tobacco plants soaked in the sun with their big green leaves.

In the distance, several men in straw hats systematically felled the heavy plants and skewered them on wooden stakes. All told, Barnard grows about 14 acres of tobacco.

Tobacco has been grown, harvested and stripped by hand in Virginia since the early 1600’s. Barnard’s family has been growing tobacco on James River bottomland for more than 75 years.

For almost 40 years, Barnard’s trusted farmhand, Martin, has plodded countless miles over this land planting and harvesting the cash crop. Martin, who declined to give his last name, is from Mexico in the U.S. on an H-2A visa that allows foreign workers to hold seasonal farm jobs.

“Martin was about 20 years old when I first went down to Mexico to get him to work for me in 1986. Since then, he has brought three of his kids and his cousin to work here after they became of age.”

Barnard shares a few words in Spanish with long-time field worker, Martin, right. Many foreign migrants fear immigration raids, and Martin chose not to give his last name despite being an H-2A visa holder. Martin has worked on the farm and led a small crew of migrants for almost 40 years.

As more U.S. workers have moved out of agriculture, the number of H-2A workers has grown. In 2024, the program drew about 380,000 migrant farm workers, a 300% increase from 94,000 in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The number of farms applying for migrant labor has tripled during that period.

Trump’s immigration policy of deporting undocumented immigrants has affected the agriculture business. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided farms that depend on year-round labor, like dairy farms. That fear of deportation has rippled through the H-2A program. Barnard’s workers shield their identities and rarely leave the farm. When they do, they carry their passports and visas.

In November, Martin and his family strip the dried tobacco leaves, sort them by type and quality, and box them up. Marin usually arrives in early April to prepare for the planting. He stays until the last box is filled.

Barnard peers out from one of his empty silos as the harvest season comes to an end. He’s spent more than 50 years digging in the fertile James River bottomland, harvesting everything from sweet potatoes to flue tobacco and raising all kinds of farm animals. He wonders what the next season will be like.

In July, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that the crackdowns would continue.

“There are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program. There are plenty of workers in America,” Rollins said. “So, no amnesty under any circumstances. Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way, as we move our workforce toward more automation and a 100% American workforce.”

Martin and his family of seasonal laborers have returned home to Mexico. Over the last 40 years, Martin has spent more time in the U.S. working at Hoot Owl Hollow Farm than he has living in his home country. Changing U.S. immigration and work policies – potentially lowering wages and workforce safety measures – raises uncertainty about whether Martin and his family will return to the farm. (Top photo: Martin and a crew of five workers lived for seven months in this trailer near one of the barns. Worn boots left behind in a cubby by the door to the trailer. Bottom photo: A small suitcase full of dirty clothes and a guitar sits in one of the rooms in the trailer.)

Barnard asked Martin and his crew if they would come back next year.

“When I asked them, they told me they would come back,” he said. “If they do not come back next year, I won’t raise tobacco.”

Martin and his family stripped the last of the dried, brown tobacco leaves from their stalks and boxed them up for export in early November. Before the sun came up the next day, the workers left for home. All that remained in the small trailer where the five grown men spent the last seven months was a cubby of worn boots and a suitcase filled with dirty clothes.

VCIJ’s Kunle Falayi contributed to the reporting.

Reach Christopher Tyree at Chris.Tyree@vcij.org.