Rome Ethredge posted an update on the impacts of the rainy conditions on peanut and cotton harvest on the Seminole Crop E News blog. I’ve posted it here because it shows how tough the recent rains have been on Georgia farmers. You can also look at it at https://seminolecropnews.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/rainy-weather/.
Recent rains have brought cotton and peanut picking and soybean combining to a halt. October was dry as usual, but November is very wet so far with over 7 inches the first 9 days. More came in many areas.
Here’s accumulated rainfall in the last 14 days.
Most peanuts have been dug and picked but there are still several hundred acres left in the fields. We can get kernel damage as dug peanuts sit in the rainy weather and we lose more during the picking process after weather like this.
There’s still a whole lot of cotton in the fields that needs to be picked. Most of the cotton has been defoliated to knock the leaves off and open the later set bolls, so it needs to be picked but now it’s very wet. We need several days of sunshine to dry the cotton out and dry the fields out so that equipment doesn’t get stuck moving through the fields. Most fields have “wet spots” in them where even with a few days of sunny weather they still hold water and this will be a problem. This time of year we don’t get quick evaporation and temperatures are cooler and days are short so moisture stays around. Also trees and other vegetation don’t use near the amount of water during late fall and winter. This has more of an effect than you may think.
What has the rain benefitted? We have some small grains (rye, wheat, oats, and ryegrass) planted for cattle grazing and they are growing well. Our ground water level was getting low during the dry October so it is improving. There’s plenty of water for hydroelectricity production at our dams. The oysters at Apalachicola are getting plenty of fresh water.
