Commodity Teams

The peanut burrower bug is a tricky pest for Georgia’s peanut producers. Not only is an infestation invisible in a field from above the ground, damage done by the bugs’ piercing mouthparts can only be detected after peanuts are harvested and sent for processing, resulting in unexpected revenue loss.

In a quiet field of abandoned blueberries and shrubby brush in south Georgia, Cera Jones released hundreds of tiny parasitoid wasps into the thicket and watched them fly away, following their natural instinct in search of a host to incubate their predatory progeny.

As climate variability increasingly affects producers across the Southeastern U.S., Wes Porter spends a lot of time thinking about water — specifically, crop irrigation — and how available tools can benefit farmers threefold.

While there is a lot of concern about impending recession in the U.S., the traditional economic indicators of recession aren’t fully apparent, especially in the agricultural sector, according to State Fiscal Economist Jeffrey Dorfman, a professor of agricultural and applied economics in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.