By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

Georgia corn farmers have started planting the first rows of
this year’s growing season. But it’s costing them more to do
it.

Beginning the first week in March, corn is usually the first row
crop planted in Georgia, said Dewey Lee, an agronomist with the
University of Georgia Extension Service.

South Geogia is one of the first places to plant corn in the
United States each year. As the weather warms, the planting
trend gradually moves north until it reaches the Midwest and
North in late spring.

Georgia farmers planted about 335,000 acres of corn last year.
But they’ll probably plant less this year, Lee said, because the
prices for seed and fertilizer have risen dramatically.

Genetically modified seed help farmers battle weeds, insects and
diseases without having to spend money on certain insecticides
and herbicides. They increase yields, too, Lee said.

But the price for this seed has risen by as much as 60 percent
since last year. The seed costs farmers about $20 more per acre,
said Nathan Smith, an economist with the University of Georgia
Extension Service.

Driven by higher fuel prices, Smith said, fertilizer costs more,
too. This spring, farmers are paying about 30 percent more for
it. Fertilizing corn cost farmers $105 per acre 18 months ago.
It takes $140 per acre today.

Georgia corn growers averaged harvesting 130 bushels per acre
last year, the second highest yields on record. Timely June
rains helped. The crop was harvested before September’s four
damaging hurricanes, too.

The state’s farmers grow much less corn than it uses each year,
Lee said. Most of the crop is used for animal feed. Georgia’s
multibillion-dollar poultry industry buys much of it during
winter, when severe weather restrains transportation from the
Midwest.

One row crop is still in Georgia fields from last year’s season:
about 300,000 acres of wheat that was planted last November.

The wheat crop is having problems with the recent moist weather,
Lee said. Powdery mildew and a soil-borne virus could hurt
yields before harvest in May. Georgia wheat farmers historically
average 45-50 bushels per acre.

“If the weather would dry out, it would really help the wheat
respond well,” he said. “But what wheat doesn’t need now is more
rain.”

Ironically, corn growers want rain now, he said, but not too
much. Newly-planted corn seeds need moisture to germinate.

Georgia farmers sell most of their wheat to mills in Georgia,
where it’s turned into flour, he said. Many farmers have also
started selling the wheat straw for landscape mulch and erosion
control.