Georgia pecan, tobacco farmers eye unexpectedly good crops

Georgia’s tobacco and pecan crop are on pace for a surprisingly good year. Not surprisingly, though, above-normal temperatures have smothered the state and taken a toll on some row crops, like peanut and cotton.

Pecan trees are alternate-bearing, meaning they produce a full crop every other year. Most trees in Georgia are on the same cycle, and this was supposed to be an “off” year for pecan production. But it isn’t looking like it, said Lenny Wells, a pecan specialist with University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

“I’m really surprised. This is the best off year in a long time,” he said.

Last year, Georgia farmers harvested 90 million pounds of pecans, a good crop for an “on” year. This off year, they’ll likely produce between 75 million and 80 million pounds, double what has been produced in other off years. The reason why isn’t clear, Wells said. Favorable spring and summer weather mixed with intense management by farmers to control diseases and insects kept trees stress-free. The colder-than-normal winter may have helped, too.

Harvest on Georgia’s 140,000 acres of pecan orchards, mostly in southwest Georgia, will start later this fall.

Changes in the way farmers market tobacco coupled with disease outbreaks have drastically reduced Georgia tobacco production in recent years. A decade ago, the state had 1,000 tobacco farmers. Less than a quarter of them remain today. But the crop turned a corner this year, said Fred Wetherington, a tobacco farmer in Lowndes County near the Florida line. Weather was good, and disease damage was minimal.

“We got the best looking crop we’ve had in 15 years or so,” Wetherington said.

Farmers planted between 10,000 and 11,000 acres this spring. Harvest is half complete.

Spring and early summer weather treated newly planted peanut and cotton plants well. But above-normal temperatures, some reaching over 100 degrees in some place, have since rocked the crops.
Last year, Georgia farmers harvested an average of 900 pounds of cotton per acre, a new state record. Records likely won’t be broken this year, said Phillip Roberts, a cotton entomologist with UGA Extension. Some areas are in mild drought. This coupled with the heat will hamper yield potential.

“The cotton crop as a whole is variable across the state, which is typical for Georgia. But we’re probably looking at more of an average crop this year compared to last,” Roberts said. “But we still have a long way to go with this crop.”

Farmers planted an estimated 1.24 million acres in Georgia this year, 25 percent more than last year, according to a recent report by the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service. Average yields are expected to be around 850 pounds per acre, but this could be optimistic, Roberts said. Harvest will start later this fall.

The extreme heat in July and early August hurt peanut plants’ ability to set peanut pods, which grow under ground, said John Beasley, a peanut agronomist with UGA Extension. But relatively cooler temperatures in the lower 90s are helping the crop recover.

Peanut farmers last year also set an average yield record for the state at 3,530 pounds per acre. It will be tough now, Beasley said, for any yield records to be broken this year, but the potential for a good crop is still there. The average yield is now expected to be 3,300 pounds per acre, or 7 percent less than last year.

Farmers planted an estimated 550,000 acres of peanuts in late spring. Harvest will start later next month.

By Brad Haire
University of Georgia 

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Georgia farmers harvest record yields

Georgia row-crop farmers worked hard on their fields this growing season, and Mother Nature gave them some favorable “calls.” They could break records. This coupled with fair prices could lead them, if not to a conference championship, to at least what could be called a “winning” season.

Most Georgia farmers plant more than one crop during a season, usually managing a combination of peanuts, cotton, corn or soybeans. Across the board, they are looking at record or record-tying yields.

Farmers planted 1 million acres of cotton this year and expect to produce1.8 million bales. (A bale is 480 pounds of lint.) This is slightly less than earlier predictions, but still 200,000 bales better than last year, according to the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service.

“Certainly the profit potential is there for cotton when you consider the size of the crop, which will be by most accounts phenomenal,” said Don Shurley, a cotton economist with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Right now, the state’s average yield is forecast to be 873 pounds per acre, or 24 pounds more than the previous record set in 2005. Harvest will not be complete until later this month or next.,

Along with the yields, prices are also good at 70 cents per pound of lint right now. “And any price that starts with the number ‘7’ gets cotton farmers’ attention,” Shurley said.

Overall, U.S. and world production is down 5 percent this year. Demand for U.S. cotton has rebounded by 2.5 percent after a major slump last year, which has kept prices higher.

Georgia peanut yields are expected to be 3,500 pounds per acre, which would be 50 pounds more than the record set in 2003, according to GASS.

“If we do reach or exceed 3,500, it will be amazing, considering the delayed planting in spring and the very undesirable harvest conditions,” said John Beasley, a UGA Extension peanut agronomist.

The No. 1 reason, he said, Georgia may reach the record is the widespread use of improved peanut varieties, like Georgia-06 G, Florida-07 and Tifguard. These varieties have high levels of disease resistance and perform with good rainfall, which most of the state received after June.

Prices for this season’s peanuts are $400 per ton, or $50 to $100 less than last year. This decrease is due to 1 million tons in surplus that hung over preplanting decisions and contract offers farmers were receiving, said Nathan Smith, a UGA Extension economist.

Georgia peanut farmers, who produce half of the nation’s crop, responded to the surplus by planting 505,000 acres this year, or 185,000 acres less than last. The U.S. will produce 1.8 million tons this year, 300,000 tons less than the expected U.S. consumption. This will shrink the surplus which will be good for prices next year, Smith said.

Demand for peanuts has recovered from the salmonella scare associated with a Georgia processing facility earlier this year. It is on track to be up 2 percent from last year, Smith said.

Georgia’s average corn yield will be 140 bushels per acre, tying last year’s record. Timely rain and irrigation helped the crop. Prices are good, too, Smith said, around $3.85 to $4 per bushel. An increase in demand for ethanol, which is made from corn, has bolstered prices.

Soybean farmers will also tie a yield record this year, averaging 33 bushels per acre. Prices for soybeans are high at $10 per bushel. China’s demand for U.S. soybeans has fueled the high prices. They will import 614 million bushels this year, double what they imported last year.

Overall input costs, or what farmers spend to produce a crop, stayed the same or decreased 5 percent to 10 percent from the previous year, Smith said. This helps farmers’ bottom lines.

Georgia’s growing season results will vary from farm to farm and so will profits, he said. Some farmers spent more, for example, to control insects or diseases in certain locations.

“But overall, things do look better now compared to what we were forecasting earlier this year,” Smith said.

By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

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Georgia tobacco yields worst in decades

Volatile spring weather and diseases have left Georgia’s tobacco crop hurting, as farmers prepare to harvest what could be their worst yields in decades, says a University of Georgia tobacco specialist.

Earlier this spring, farmers had one of the toughest times in recent memory just trying to get the tobacco crop securely planted, said J. Michael Moore, a tobacco expert with UGA Cooperative Extension. Repeated rain deluges of five and six inches across south Georgia, where the crop is grown, washed away planting beds, chemicals, plants and delayed planting all together.

“There were a lot of headaches just getting started this year,” he said.

Farmers eventually planted 15,000 acres by May 1, he said. Then came more rain followed by a hot, dry June. Then the diseases hit -- hard.

Tobacco’s deadliest foe is tomato spotted wilt virus, which is carried by tiny insects called thrips. Over the past few years, it has infected 15 percent of the plants. This year, as much as 30 percent of plants statewide have shown symptoms of the disease. Many plants have died and yields have been reduced, he said.

The increased damage from TSWV this year was likely due to the weather. “We know there is a relation to the type of weather we had and this disease pressure,” Moore said. “But at this point we don’t know exactly what that relation is.”

Due to the excessive rain, two other diseases called target spot and white mold also caused problems for farmers, he said.

Of the 15,000 acres planted, Moore said, 1,700 acres were lost either to extreme rain or disease. Due to weather- and disease-related problems, tobacco yields are expected to average 1,700 pounds per acre, or 400 pounds per acre less than last year. This is the lowest average yield since 1973.

In total, Georgia farmers are expected to harvest 23.8 million pounds of tobacco this year, or 29 percent less than last year. Harvest will start in the next two weeks, a month behind the typical schedule.

The number of tobacco farmers continues to decline in Georgia. Today, only 200 actively grow the crop. There were around 350 two years ago.

In 2004, Georgia had 1,000 tobacco farmers. That same year, the federal government ended its Depression-era tobacco quota program at the farmers' request. It provided price support but restricted how much tobacco farmers could grow and where. Farmers and quota owners were compensated for the end of the program.

Farmers now can grow as much tobacco as they feel they need to fill contracts they get directly from cigarette manufactures or marketing companies. For decades, south Georgia has been a place to get sweet-flavored, aromatic tobacco, the kind manufacturers add to tobacco blends to improve taste.

But delivering quality tobacco this year will be hard for Georgia, Moore said. And making any profit will be, too.

Tobacco quality is graded on a scale from 1 to 4, with No. 1 being the best, which has golden leaves and no blemishes. Most companies now only want No. 1- or No. 2-graded tobacco. They have enough of the No. 3 and No. 4 in storage to use for the next 15 years, he said.

“Growers are concerned that the companies are no longer seeing south Georgia as a reliable region for quality tobacco,” he said. “There is a demand for this style of tobacco, and there will continue to be. But it’s critical for us to produce the tobacco in this area to keep the market.”

For now, the remaining farmers are cobbling together a tobacco-growing industry in Georgia, scavenging from old, abandoned equipment to fix equipment currently in use.

“I’d hate to be a dealer trying to sell any tobacco-related equipment today,” Moore said. “Nobody has the money to buy anything new.”

By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

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Rainwater finds new use as toilet water

Recently, the plumbing code in Georgia was amended to allow homeowners to use rainwater and gray water to flush toilets and urinals, something that will help them weather the next drought and conserve water now, says a University of Georgia water expert.

“Most of our water demand could be supplied by harvested rainwater,” said Frank Henning, a former watershed agent with UGA Cooperative Extension. “It would be a win-win-win development. Rainwater harvesting can improve water conservation, reduce storm water problems and reduce the need to construct expensive reservoirs.”

Henning is a liaison between the Environmental Protection Agency and land-grant universities. EPA estimates that potable water, or water clean enough to drink, accounts for 20 percent of household water needs. The other 80 percent ends up going down the toilet, dripping into gardens as irrigation or swishing around a washing machine.

If Georgians started using rainwater or gray water, which is used water from the shower, laundry or sink, to flush toilets, they would save more drinking water and put less strain on municipal supplies.

Annual rainfall

Georgia’s sky produces plenty of water, about 50 inches in a normal year. Every inch of rain produces 623 gallons of water on a 1,000 square foot roof. Doing the math, more than 60,000 gallons of water will rush off of the rooftops of most homes every year in Georgia.

“If each home harvested these thousands of gallons available each month, when you multiply that by the households we have, the amount of water that can be harvested is tremendous,” Henning said. “There wouldn’t be as much storm water; and erosion, flooding and stream impairment would likely be reduced.”

In states where water is scarcer, like New Mexico, local governments require that new homes be built with rain harvesting systems.

“There, rainwater is seen as part of the water supply, not some fringe, kook package. We are hoping that rainwater harvesting will become a mainstream practice throughout the Southeast,” Henning said.

Using rainwater

While it may sound easy, rainwater harvesting involves more than a rain barrel and a hose.

A harvesting system requires a collection system, a pump, a filter, disinfection, delivery pipe and a safety valve so the municipal supply is not contaminated. The American Rainwater Catchment System Association, or ARCSA, certifies installers who can set up home systems.

Currently, gray water must be colored so that people can tell that it’s not drinking water. It must also flow through purple pipes. Both gray water and rainwater pipes and fixtures must be marked so that people know what kind of water they’re using.

“We don’t expect people to drink water out of their toilets, but it is always good to take extra precautions for safety,” Henning said. “In the future, if the home switches hands, people will know their water is coming from a non-potable source.”

Bacteria?

Rainwater use can bring up worries about bacteria. Henning says that most people aren’t scared of stream water. It usually has higher bacteria counts than the water in gutters.

“Studies have shown that there is very little chance that bacteria would make it to your mouth unless you’re washing your hands in it or drinking it,” he said. “So don’t take after the dog.”

Georgia is in the final stages of developing guidance documents on using rainwater and gray water. The final drafts are expected this summer. For more information, visit www.dca.state.ga.us/development/constructioncodes/programs/codeamendments.asp.

By Stephanie Schupska
University of Georgia

Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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