Farmers in the Shenandoah Valley — which includes Virginia’s two most productive agricultural counties, Rockingham and Augusta — reacted to Wall Street rumblings with a wait-and-see attitude Tuesday, calling financial uncertainty a routine test in their industry

Steve Fitzgerald’s normal cash crop of corn is better suited for cutting and feeding his beef cattle, the result of another dry summer in southern Augusta County.

State farmland values are up a robust 3.5 percent this year over last, bucking the trend in the flagging housing market.