News Stories - Page 183

Commodity updates for high-value row crops like peanuts and cotton highlight this year’s Georgia Ag Forecast meetings, which are currently being held statewide.

Georgia is due for another blast of arctic air this week and, while Georgians themselves might be groaning about the cold weather, it’s beneficial for the state’s peach crop. These chilly days provide the cold temperatures that Georgia’s fruit crops need for healthy production this summer.

Nestled just south of the world’s busiest airport, there’s a 38-acre camp where generations of young Fulton County, Georgia, residents can connect with nature. For the last 10 years, Camp Fulton/Truitt 4-H Center hasn’t received much attention, but now a team of volunteers from south Fulton County and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents are working to make it an oasis once again.

The University of Georgia has received a $14 million grant from the U.S. Agency of International Development to manage the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut Research, known as the Peanut Lab, a global peanut research program that works to alleviate hunger by helping farmers in developing countries grow healthy crops. The agreement builds on UGA and USAID’s long-standing partnership on global peanut research dating to the 1980s.

University of Georgia entomologists advise farmers to kill crops capable of hosting whiteflies after the crop is harvested a final time. Crops left in the field could continue to serve as hosts.

Georgia’s supply of sodded turfgrass will sufficiently cover demand this year, and the delivery cost is not expected to rise, according to the Annual Georgia Sod Producers Inventory Survey conducted by Clint Waltz, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension turfgrass specialist, and the Georgia Urban Ag Council.

At the end of December 2017, a strain of the H7 avian influenza was found in a green-winged teal, a widespread North American duck, collected in McIntosh County on the Georgia coast. 

Hurricane Irma, downgraded to a tropical storm when it entered the state, damaged about 30 percent of Georgia’s pecan crop, and the storm’s effects could linger into next growing season, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells.

A second food retail revolution, unlike the first, which was spearheaded by new entrants, is being led by existing industry leaders. For this reason, in addition to lessons learned from the many failures so far, the second-generation revolution is likely to succeed.