Georgia farmers finally have something to cheer about. They’re
harvesting a truly golden
crop.

“We’re looking at a corn crop for ’96 that’s about half again as
valuable as in ’95,” said
George Shumaker, an economist with the University of Georgia
Extension Service.

Georgia farmers and economists expect the corn crop to be worth
about $157 million this year.
Shumaker said last year’s crop, while good, totaled $102
million.

Georgia farmers plan to harvest about 190,000 acres more corn
than last year, he said. An
overall yield of 97 bushels per acre, up from 90 in 1995, will
boost the statewide crop.

“I advised a lot of farmers to sell their corn in late July and
August when prices were high, and
a lot did,” Shumaker said. “Prices are in a dip right now during
harvest. But if farmers can
store their corn and manage it carefully, they can see more
profitable prices closer to the new
year.”

That price dip is partly due to farmers’ harvesting the third
largest U.S. crop in history.
Shumaker said Georgia’s crop isn’t record-setting, but it’s
good.

Dewey Lee, an extension agronomist, said Georgia yields were
amazingly high. “We saw a lot
of yield loss, especially in east Georgia, from a lack of
water,” he said. “But irrigated fields
had great yields.”

But even while Georgia farmers harvest their crop, tiny maize
weevils may be devouring it
right under their noses.

Many farmers left their corn in the field for several weeks
after it was ready to harvest. Lee
said the longer it stays in the field, the more likely weevils
will invade.

“It’s an easy food source for them,” he said. “The adults fly
into the field and lay their eggs in
the corn kernels. The larvae mature in the kernel and emerge as
adults.”

The larvae eat out the inside of the kernel, leaving a powdery
residue. They emerge as adults
through tiny, clean-edged holes. Adult weevils are eighth-inch-
long, black insects with a
distinct snout.

Steve L. Brown, an extension entomologist, said he’s seen maize
weevils in nearly every corn
field he’s been in.

“The numbers are high this year,” he said. “And if they’re in
the field, then farmers are
putting infested corn into storage.”

Brown and Lee said storing corn in the Southeast isn’t easy.
Warm weather and humidity can
damage corn and make conditions ideal for insects to thrive in
corn bins where food is
plentiful.

The county extension office gives farmers details on storing and
protecting corn in Georgia.

Lee said timely harvest is one way to keep weevils out of stored
corn. “But even before
harvest, farmers must get bins ready for storage,” he said.

“The real problem comes when the adult weevils emerge from
kernels inside the bin and start
mating and laying eggs,” he said. He tells farmers to inspect
their corn for weevils every week
for two months, then monthly after that.

When weevils emerge, fumigation offers the only option for
control. “It’s not cheap to do,”
Brown said. “But it can save the grain.”

Once the grain is infested, its value for feeding livestock
drops quickly. The insects eat the
corn, leaving very little weight and nutrition.

Shumaker said too many farmers put the corn in the bin and
forget it. But if weevils get to a
farmer’s stored corn, he can forget about profits, too.