Georgia farmers have suffered through a dry spell just when they
need water the most –
when their plants are trying to set a crop.
This year, many farmers were looking forward to a “normal” year.
There were some dry
spots, but overall they had enough rain to make their crops
through mid-July and early
August. Then the regular rains stopped.
University of Georgia Extension Service scientists and
economists figure dry-weather
losses in peanuts, pecans and cotton at $56 million. And that
figure climbs higher with
each new day without rain.
Peanuts have been especially hard hit. The crop got off to a
hard start with a viral disease,
tomato spotted wilt, in nearly every peanut field.
“I’d call it 100 percent, but some fields had less infection
than others. So losses won’t be
nearly that high,” said John Beasley, an extension agronomist
with the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Now that peanuts have set their crop, the dry weather is
hindering the harvest. Beasley
said the soil in about 25 percent of the peanut region contains
lots of clay. When it dries
out, “that ground becomes extremely hard. Trying to put digger
blades into the ground,”
he said, “is almost like trying to put them into concrete.”
The dry ground can pull peanuts off the vines as they’re dug out
of the soil, so they can’t
be harvested. “It really adds insult to injury,” he said.
On Sept. 1, the National
Agricultural Statistics Service estimated that Georgia
farmers
would average 2,650 pounds, down from earlier estimates of
nearly 2,800 pounds. That’s
a loss of about $15.6 million so far.
Pecans are suffering, too, said Tom Crocker, an extension
horticulturist. Dry weather
through late August and early September cut production by as
much as 5 million pounds
per week. Crocker figures that since the first week of
September, Georgia pecan farmers
have lost about $7.5 million.
Cotton production is suffering, too, said Steve Brown, an
extension agronomist. He
expects the average yield will drop to about 700 pounds per
acre, causing a loss of $34
million.
The dry weather is affecting soybeans as well. Usually, the
seeds are developing and filling
out in the pods during mid-September, said extension agronomist
John Woodruff. But this
year the pods and even leaves are falling off the stems.
“It’s really turned around since early August,” Woodruff
said. “But given some rainfall,
most of the crop could rebound and give us some pretty good
yields.”
An often-overlooked crop that is having a rough time:
pastures. “We’ve got farmers
having to feed hay now rather than in November, when they
usually start,” said Robert
Stewart, an extension animal scientist.
The weather has hit cattlemen a double blow. With pastures
playing out early, the grass
for hay hasn’t grown, either. Farmers are having to feed hay
earlier and don’t have as much
of it, either, to carry them through the winter.
One crop has escaped damage. Most of the corn had matured before
the rains ended.
Extension agronomist Dewey Lee said more than 75 percent of the
state’s corn is
harvested.
“The remaining corn is primarily in north Georgia,” he
said. “And some of that is suffering
from a lack of moisture. But overall, it’s going to be a good
year.”
