Impacts of the recent rain in South Carolina and surrounding areas on agriculture are continuing to come in. The Southeast Farm Press ran an article this morning describing the “one-two” punch of a summer drought (which reduced yields by 50%) and the floods, which dropped the expected yields for many crops down to 30% of last year’s harvest. The quality and quantity of cotton and peanuts is expected to drop due to the wet conditions. Wet soils are also expected to significantly delay harvest in some areas.
Rome Ethredge of Seminole Crop E News posted a link to an article from former Decatur County SC extension agent Justin Ballew on what they are experiencing in the Pee Dee region, which did not experience the worst of the flooding but did go through 12 straight days of rain leading up to the flood event. He also showed a photo of some grain sorghum which had sprouted.
Nick McGhee in the Nochaway Ag Update posted a photo of cotton seed sprouting in bolls due to the wet and cloudy weather in that part of Georgia as well as a link to an article from Dr. Guy Collins, Extension Cotton Agronomist from NC State University, on the phenomenon here. This was also discussed in an article today describing fields in North Carolina along with some methods to deal with it in Southeast Farm Press here.
