Steve Hopkins
Virginia Farmer of the Year 2025
Seven generations of Hopkins family members have worked to maintain and grow their Riverview Farms Cattle operation in Louisa. Steve and sons Blake and Garrett run the 1200+ acre cattle, crops, and poultry operation as partners—each contributing his own unique talent, energy, and expertise to its ongoing success.
After graduating from Virginia Tech, Steve worked for Virginia Cooperative Extension for 29 years and farmed part-time with his dad and brother. By 2017, he had bought out their shares and brought in his sons, Blake and Garrett. Blake earned a BS degree in Animal Science from Kansas State University, and Garrett graduated from Virginia Tech with an AS in Crop and Soil Sciences. Steve’s wife, Crysti, is also a Virginia Tech graduate and works as a Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent, Family & Consumer Sciences. She enjoys offering programs on farm transition planning and education programs for professionals and producers.
Riverview Farms Cattle, LLC grows hay, corn, and sorghum for its 300 head of cows, 300 head of custom-fed bulls, and 153,000 head of turkeys in three flocks of 51,000 each. Steve also owns a consulting business called Central Virginia Cattlemen LLC that markets feeder cattle through a state graded sale each year. In 1998, he founded the Central Virginia Cattleman’s Association and serves as its Marketing Director. Blake helps market 300+ seedstock bulls across Virginia and surrounding states and manages both the cow herd and the custom feeding operations. Garrett now manages the farm’s two turkey houses as well as the crop and hay operations.
Steve said, “In addition to our cattle marketing businesses, I also serve on my local co-op board and board of directors of Growmark, an agricultural cooperative serving retailers, coops, business, and customers in the US and Canada. We provide customers with fuels, lubricants, crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed, construction services, equipment and grain marketing assistance.”
Riverview Farms Cattle sells its calves through the Central Virginia Cattlemen Association’s Special Virginia Quality Assured feeder calf sale in load lots directly off the farm to feeders across the US and Canada. Hopkins created a sales catalog and coordinates the sale (both live and online) that is the largest in the state. Bulls are sold through four different sales in conjunction with private treaty offerings. Turkeys are marketed as whole birds directly through an integrated contractor. The farm has plans to expand crop production and sell cash crops in the future.
Steve commented, “In terms of land stewardship, each division of the farm follows a nutrient management plan. We’ve fenced off all streams and waterways on both owned and rented land and built over nine miles of fence, installed 40+ automatic waterers, and drilled eight wells. Additionally, we’ve built five winter feeding facilities, six manure storage barns, a litter storage barn, and concrete scrape pads behind all feed bunks.” Cows are rotationally grazed on 800 acres of pasture as well as on cover crops (weather permitting) that are planted on 100 percent of crop land.
He added, “We utilize no-till practices over 95 percent of the land and employ a three-to-five-year system to rotate fields between corn, grass, and sorghum. We use a vertical beater spreader, loader scales, and GPS guidance to apply manure and litter across the farm. These practices were recognized and honored by us receiving the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District Clean Water Farm Award in 2022.”
On the local level, Steve is a member of the Louisa County Farm Bureau, Louisa County Rural Preservation Committee, Ever-Gro Coop board member and long-time past member of the Orange County Farm Bureau. On the state level, he is a member of the Virginia Cattlemen Association, the Central Virginia Cattlemen Association (and Cattle Marketing Director 2017-present), and Virginia Farm Bureau. On the national level, Steve serves on the Growmark Board of Directors and has been the Region 1 VP and Executive Committee member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Steve plans to grow and diversify the farm to support his sons’ future families. Over the next ten years, he wants to increase the cow base to 400 and continue to add quality by purchasing top-end bulls and focusing on maternal traits through strong cow families. He said, “We hope to double the scale of our custom feeding and poultry divisions as well as expand the crop farming aspect which will require purchasing additional land and equipment, using guidance and precision planting technologies. Some of this expansion of course depends on being able to meet the likely need for more labor in the future.”
As a family Steve, Crysti, Blake, and Garrett enjoy worshiping together at Louisa Baptist Church and attending Virginia Tech football games when time and farm duties allow. Steve noted, “One of the things I most appreciate about the agricultural way of life is that whenever or wherever in the country you meet another farmer or rancher, they’re never a stranger. Everything about this way of life means you have an immediate connection in terms of values, challenges, and goals. It creates a meaningful bond of friendship.”
Steve Hopkins was nominated Virginia Farmer of the Year by Charles Rosson, Agricultural Extension Agent, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Louisa County. He said, “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. 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 distinguished panel of judges will visit Steve Hopkins, along with the farms of the other six state finalists, the week of August 5–8. The judges include John McKissick, retired Ag Economist UGA; and Charles Ed Snipes, retired Weed Scientist Mississippi State University; and Kevin Morgan, retired Executive Assistant to the President Florida Farm Bureau. Judges typically serve for three years before rotating off the team.