Crops
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I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof and I smiled because there is no more welcome sound after a long dry spell. But will the rain be helpful for farmers trying to find grazing for their cattle? Dr. Dennis Hancock, UGA pasture specialist, put out a note about this yesterday in…
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Dr. Bob Kemerait of UGA has an insightful column in the Southeast Farm Press on how weather and climate make predicting crop performance difficult. This year has been particularly bad with flooding rain in some areas and severe drought in others. As Bob points out, “the most important factor that the grower can do little…
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The University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment issued a new map showing global emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane due to crop and food production this week. According to the map, much of the inland Southeast is relatively low in GHG emissions. Florida and the coastal plains, however, put off…
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While severe drought is affecting a lot of the Southeast, areas in Florida and South Carolina that got rain from the tropical storms this year are generally doing well, although yields have been reduced in some places. The Packer noted here the pepper and green bean season may start low but that things should improve…
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There is a great new resource available for free describing the relationships between climate and crops. It is an iBook recently produced by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System at Auburn University. Here are some comments about it from their press release: Dr. John Beasley, head of Auburn University’s Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences,…
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AgWeb released a video story today about the impacts of flooding rain in Louisiana and North Carolina on this year’s sweet potato crops. In some areas of Louisiana, for example, some farmers lost 50 to 70 percent of their crop. In the north, losses ranged from 15 percent to 35 percent. You can read more and…
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Allison Floyd wrote an interesting story in Growing Georgia this week about research underway at the University of Georgia to find a more drought-resistant strain of sorghum, which already does well in dry conditions. She reports: “When University of Georgia plant geneticist Andrew Paterson started to look for lines of sorghum that might survive in…