What grows on Georgia farms? Cotton and peanuts, of course.
And veggies. Don’t forget
the veggies.

People may not know it, but vegetables rank right up there
with cotton and peanuts as
money crops in Georgia.

In fact, Georgia vegetable income in 1995 was $17 million
more than the income from
peanuts. Figures for 1996 aren’t in yet. But the final ’95
figures show vegetable income
second only to cotton among Georgia row crops.

In 1995, cotton income topped $767 million. Vegetables
brought in $434 million, and
peanuts slipped to $417 million. With a value of $1.6 billion,
the three crops made up
about one-third of the state’s farm income.

“Georgia vegetable acreage actually dropped a little in
1994,” said Terry
Kelley, a horticulturist with the University of Georgia
Extension Service. “But
experienced growers are now producing more on fewer
acres.”

Just five years ago, vegetable income wasn’t even 40 percent
of the figure for peanuts.

Georgia farmers planted more than 175,000 acres to vegetables
in 1994 and ’95. They
grew cabbage, cucumbers, lima and snap beans, onions, sweet
corn, tomatoes, squash,
peppers, watermelons, greens and 20 other veggies. And they’re
growing more new crops,
like carrots.

Some veggies bring more money than others. Prices vary widely
through the harvest and
market season, too. Through it all, vegetable income keeps
growing.

“Vegetable income has risen slowly for many years,”
said Larry Snipes, the
state statistician with the Georgia Agricultural Statistics
Service. “Peanut income
varies more from year to year.”

Many peanut farmers say their crop suffered during the mostly
dry 1995 growing season.
Irrigation systems cover less than half of Georgia peanut land.
But Kelley said farmers
irrigate 95 percent or more of their vegetable acres.

“We don’t
recommend that any farmer grow vegetables without
irrigation,” he said. “The
investment is too large to let the plants dry up and
die.”

So at least until the 1996 crop figures are in next year,
vegetable farmers can bask
near the top of the income pool.

“It’s a
boost for vegetable growers to know their crop has joined the
ranks of peanut and cotton
income in Georgia,” Kelley said. “We’re up with the
standards, the crops people all over the nation and
world know as ‘Georgia’ crops.”

Extension economist George Westberry figures the peanut crop
will take back its
second-place rank in ’96. “Peanuts had their problems, but
so did vegetables,”
he said.

Low watermelon prices and freeze damage in cabbage, onions
and greens could drop
vegetable income back just below peanuts.

“The fall vegetable season has been strong,”
Westberry said. “But it may
not be enough to keep vegetables ahead of peanuts in
1996.”