Crops
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Last week I mentioned that some Georgia farmers were looking to grow pomegranates as a new crop in the Southeast. Georgia Farm Monitor released a video on this subject a few days later, explaining how growing pomegranates mesh nicely with blueberries because they ripen at different times of year. You can watch the video by…
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The latest release from the National Agriculture Statistics Service shows that 79 percent of subsurface soils are short on moisture, according to Growing Georgia. This continuing lack of rainfall has caused crops like soybeans, cotton and peanuts to fade and pastures to stop producing grass. Even crops that were going to be baled for filler…
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Clint Thompson reported this week in Growing Georgia that the number of kudzu bugs in soybean fields this year has been drastically lower than the past few years. Wayne Gardner, a UGA entomologist from Griffin, attributes this to the cold weather we had across the Southeast this winter. A tiny Asian wasp may also have…
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Two stories in the news this week highlight potential advantages growers have in choosing a crop that not only matches the local climate but also takes advantage of market potential. The Modern Farmer released a story this week which described the growing peony crop in Alaska. This hardy plant can survive temperatures up to 60…
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Business Insider shared an article from their Australian counterparts this week discussing some recent research results on ways to improve wheat yields without adding additional water. In brief, the research showed better crop yields when summer weeds were reduced to preserve moisture, crops were rotated regularly, and seeds were planted two to three weeks earlier…
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There have been some recent news stories about new crops that farmers are trying to establish in the Southeast in response to changing climate conditions as well as citrus greening and other problems with current crops. Previously I have written about satsumas as a new crop that is being introduced to southern Georgia to take…
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AgWeb reported from a story in Bloomberg today that rains twice the normal amount fattened pods from North Dakota to Ohio in August. The soybean crop is expected to yield a record 18 percent higher than last year after farmers planted 11 percent more than in 2013 due to favorable markets early in the year.…