Crops

  • Greenville Online reported this week that South Carolina’s peach crop could be the strongest in years, according to experts from Clemson.  Even though they had less chill hours than usual this year due to the warm December across the eastern US, they still got enough to help develop a good crop.  South Carolina produces the…

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  • A recent study published in Nature Climate Change shows that six of nine staple crops in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to be able to continue to be cultivated in a warmer climate.  Three crops, however, maize, beans and bananas, will most likely no longer be viable in the new climate and will have to be…

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  • Hail no

    While we are enjoying beautiful weather across most of the Southeast this week, it’s always good to be aware of severe weather.  The National Severe Storms Lab (NSSL) has some great resources on severe weather at their website https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/, including one on hail. For agriculture, hail does not even need to be large to cause big…

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  • AgWeb had an interesting article this week on predicting corn yields based on past years.  One way to do this is to use analog years that are similar to this year and see what happened.  In the article, they used 1972-73, 1982-83 and 1997-98.  Using the analog method, they showed that in two of the three…

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  • The Packer reported that supplies of green peppers and squash are returning to normal after a January where wind and rain destroyed up to 50 percent of the pepper crop and cool temperatures slowed the growth of squash.  More favorable weather in recent weeks has allowed production of the two crops to improve and supplies…

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  • Clint Thompson of UGA released a story this week (printed here in Growing Georgia) on the impact of the wet conditions caused by El Niño on corn planting across the region.  Rain has been plentiful in parts of Georgia this winter due to frequent storms passing through the area dropping rain and snow. Since Georgia…

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  • The Southeast Farm Press reported earlier this month that the 2015 tobacco crop was a near disaster to producers.  Fewer plants than usual were planted and the market was down, but the real culprit was bad weather in many of the tobacco-growing areas of Kentucky and North Carolina.  Wet conditions followed by drought and a…

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