Crops
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AgWeb posted an interesting story this week about the increase in the use of drought-tolerant hybrids of corn in recent years. The first seeds with drought tolerance were made available in 2011 and the percent of corn acreage planted with the new hybrids has grown to over 20% since then. I expect to see this…
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The Southeast Farm Press reported this week that drier conditions in January have allowed cotton fields to dry off, allowing the resumption of cotton harvest. In early January 10-15 percent of the crop was still in the field, but by the end of the month just 5-10 percent of the crop was still left to…
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The Georgia Ag Forecast was presented around the state this week at a series of meetings with producers. It shows that recovery from Hurricane Michael has been slow and that some producers are still harvesting cotton in January, which has never happened before. One cotton gin in southwest Georgia was expecting to handle 180,000 bales…
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Here are two recent stories that sum up the year in Georgia agriculture. WSB described the gut-wrenching losses due to Hurricane Michael in some parts of the state as well as impacts from frost on peach farmers here. Then the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described the impacts of Hurricanes Michael (and Irma last year) on pecan production…
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ABC News posted an interesting story this week about how changes in climate in the Midwest are affecting corn producers. The story discusses the warming trend in climate there and how planting corn earlier in the year allows it to get through pollination before the temperature gets really hot, leading to improved yields. It shows…
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While driving home from a winter weather conference today, I heard a conservative radio host say that humans could not possibly change the climate because it is too big to be affected by us. Of course, this is silly because humans have been changing their local climates for a long time, and with the number…
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An article this week in AgWeb nicely summarizes the findings of the recent National Climate Assessment report on agriculture. According to the article, the National Climate Assessment (NCA) predicts agriculture will be one of the greatest casualties when it comes to climate change. “Any change in the climate poses a major challenge to agriculture through…