ga-crop-weather State Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date July 16, 2006 Issue GA-CW2806 Agricultural Summary July 16, 2006 SHOWERS ONLY TEMPORARY RELIEF The State experienced sporadic rain this week, but not enough to maintain last week's improvement in crop conditions, according to the USDA, NASS, Georgia Field Office. Only scattered rain was reported this week. Some areas recorded weeklong rainfall totals over one inch, while others recorded none. Highs throughout the week reached the mid 90's with nighttime lows in the upper 60's to low 70's. Soil moisture conditions were rated at 40% very short, 41% short, 18% adequate, and 1% surplus. Dry conditions and high temperatures have continued to diminish yield potentials and crop quality. Early planted soybeans were in poor to fair condition. However, with recent rainfall, corn condition improved in north Georgia. Pasture and hayfield conditions also improved slightly, but they are in danger of declining rapidly without consistent rainfall. Cattle producers were still feeding hay to livestock. Hay producers reported lower than average yields on harvested fields. Pond and stream levels were still low. Dry weather has helped with disease control. Insect pressure increased for peanuts. Producers applied herbicides and fungicides to peanuts, and applied herbicides and fertilizer to cotton. They also began harvesting tobacco. Farmers were forced to irrigate whenever possible. County Extension Agents reported an average of 6.3 days suitable for fieldwork. CROP PROGRESS Jul 16, Prev Prev 5 Year 2006 Week Year Avg Corn, Silked 96 94 96 97 Corn, Dough 81 70 69 82 Corn, Dent 53 34 17 46 Corn, Mature 11 2 0 12 Soybeans, Emerged 98 95 99 98 Soybeans, Blooming 33 20 32 40 Soybeans, Setting Pods 8 3 7 15 Sorghum, Planted 97 95 91 96 Cotton, Squaring 95 87 88 90 Cotton, Setting Bolls 68 44 38 52 Peaches, Harvested 57 51 61 70 Peanuts, Blooming 95 86 93 94 Peanuts, Pegging 75 57 67 74 Tobacco, Harvested 21 12 17 22 Watermelons, Harvested 90 83 67 82 CROP CONDITION July 16, 2006 Crop Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent --Percentages-- Corn 11 24 33 26 6 Soybeans 13 27 39 21 0 Sorghum 10 32 36 22 0 Cotton 14 21 38 25 2 Pasture 26 36 29 9 0 Apples 0 7 27 57 9 Hay 21 35 33 11 0 Peanuts 7 17 39 32 5 Pecans 17 28 37 17 1 Tobacco 4 24 43 26 3 PASTURE CONDITION - DISTRICT* LEVEL July 16, 2006 Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent --Percentages-- Dist 1(NW) 24 35 41 0 0 Dist 2(NC) 4 38 40 16 2 Dist 3(NE) 3 51 40 6 0 Dist 4(WC) 25 44 26 5 0 Dist 5(C) 47 34 19 0 0 Dist 6(EC) 26 26 29 19 0 Dist 7(SW) 48 32 14 6 0 Dist 8(SC) 21 43 30 6 0 Dist 9(SE) 6 24 48 22 0 *A list of the counties in each of the nine Georgia Agricultural Statistics Districts is available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/ga/ctyests/districts.pdf. Soil Moisture Table Jul 16, 2006 Prev Year 5 Year Avg --Percentages-- Very Short 40 0 4 Short 41 2 20 Adequate 18 50 59 Surplus 1 48 17 SOIL MOISTURE - DISTRICT* LEVEL July 16, 2006 Very Short Short Adequate Surplus --Percentages-- Dist 1(NW) 25 48 27 0 Dist 2(NC) 15 39 40 6 Dist 3(NE) 22 41 37 0 Dist 4(WC) 63 28 9 0 Dist 5(C) 47 49 4 0 Dist 6(EC) 42 43 15 0 Dist 7(SW) 55 39 6 0 Dist 8(SC) 45 45 10 0 Dist 9(SE) 24 40 36 0 *A list of the counties in each of the nine Georgia Agricultural Statistics Districts is available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/ga/ctyests/districts.pdf. Weather Information Table GEORGIA WEATHER SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK ENDING MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY JULY 16, 2006 1/ 2006 Air Temperature Precipitation Totals Extreme Weekly Rain 30 60 Soil Location Max Min AvG Weekly Day Day Day Season Temp ALBANY 100 67 84 0.08 1 5.81 7.21 24.17 93 ALMA 98 62 81 0.22 2 2.96 6.77 25.16 82 ALPHARETTA 94 65 79 0.36 3 4.92 5.30 23.04 81 ARLINGTON 100 64 84 0.00 0 2.46 3.48 20.19 89 ATTAPULGUS 97 64 81 0.01 1 4.26 6.05 19.70 90 BLAIRSVILLE 91 60 74 0.48 5 6.90 10.10 26.79 77 BOWEN 99 63 82 0.15 1 2.06 5.61 19.25 90 BRUNSWICK 98 71 82 0.01 1 3.13 6.31 18.06 82 BYROMVILLE 100 67 85 0.00 0 1.41 1.90 19.34 88 BYRON 100 65 84 0.00 0 0.82 1.96 14.99 85 CAIRO 97 64 82 0.00 0 1.30 3.01 17.35 82 CALHOUN 95 67 79 0.74 3 3.44 6.15 22.10 82 CAMILLA 99 65 83 0.43 2 2.79 3.94 22.14 94 CLARKS HILL 96 63 80 0.72 3 3.07 9.82 23.82 83 CORDELE 100 67 84 0.59 1 1.32 1.94 17.22 91 COVINGTON 99 69 83 0.00 0 1.75 2.50 12.92 87 DAHLONEGA 91 64 76 0.54 4 4.28 5.24 19.71 78 DALLAS 95 66 81 0.01 1 1.61 1.98 22.70 81 DAWSON 101 61 83 0.00 0 0.82 1.47 12.43 84 DEARING 97 69 82 0.52 2 3.22 7.71 18.93 82 DEMPSEY 98 69 83 0.00 0 2.67 3.26 15.64 87 DIXIE 99 61 82 0.00 0 2.22 5.07 19.45 88 DUBLIN 102 63 85 0.01 1 1.43 3.03 18.05 84 DULUTH 93 66 80 0.03 2 3.45 4.08 22.72 82 DUNWOODY 93 67 80 0.17 2 5.20 5.83 23.34 81 EATONTON 99 64 82 0.01 1 3.44 4.20 16.49 89 ELBERTON 97 69 81 0.50 2 1.79 3.79 17.08 82 ELLIJAY 91 65 76 0.73 3 3.85 5.22 26.46 81 FORT VALLEY 100 65 84 0.35 2 1.64 2.20 13.82 89 GAINESVILLE 94 68 80 0.00 0 2.05 3.31 18.46 85 GEORGETOWN 100 64 83 0.06 2 0.65 2.43 17.72 91 GRIFFIN 97 70 82 0.00 0 3.20 3.76 16.54 83 HOMERVILLE 101 56 81 0.78 2 1.18 5.56 17.41 85 JACKSONVILLE 100 64 83 0.05 2 1.53 2.04 14.45 87 JONESBORO 96 66 81 1.22 3 4.11 5.44 21.66 83 LAFAYETTE 93 65 79 1.07 4 4.87 6.42 22.50 80 MCRAE 101 59 83 0.02 1 1.08 2.92 20.13 91 MIDVILLE 97 63 82 0.13 1 1.57 6.08 17.26 90 NAHUNTA 99 61 79 1.36 3 3.42 8.09 18.16 85 NEWTON 99 65 82 0.02 1 3.91 5.35 24.79 89 PINE MOUNTAIN 98 66 81 0.76 1 1.80 2.33 17.84 85 PLAINS 102 67 83 0.00 0 1.27 2.22 19.01 93 ROME 97 67 80 0.49 2 3.12 4.62 21.79 82 ROOPVILLE 94 65 80 0.01 1 5.57 7.12 24.93 83 SASSER 99 64 83 0.08 1 0.46 0.72 15.16 92 SAVANNAH 100 64 82 0.39 2 3.12 7.17 21.00 87 SHELLMAN 102 67 84 0.01 1 1.89 2.58 14.19 94 SKIDAWAY 95 65 77 3.14 4 7.54 10.05 20.04 78 SNEADS 93 71 82 0.14 1 0.14 1.91 15.49 87 STATESBORO 98 60 81 0.86 1 2.66 6.34 16.14 90 TIFTON 97 64 83 0.78 1 2.30 5.10 21.45 82 TIGER 90 60 74 0.15 2 8.19 12.27 29.59 79 VALDOSTA 99 67 83 0.66 1 6.02 9.51 22.36 81 VIDALIA 102 62 82 0.00 0 0.80 3.42 14.27 87 WATKINSVILLE 96 70 81 0.62 2 2.10 3.43 21.56 84 WILLIAMSON 97 67 81 0.02 1 2.99 3.47 14.70 85 WOODBINE 99 65 80 0.25 2 3.16 7.05 16.58 84 1/ Weather data supplied by Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network (AEMN) and the office of the State Climatologist, University of Georgia. For detailed Georgia weather data visit the AEMN homepage, www.georgiaweather.net. NA - not available. District Highlights These comments are written by the Georgia County Extension Agents, and have been compiled and edited by the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service. DISTRICT COMMENTS July 16, 2006 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Conditions have returned extremely dry, drought-like. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Spotty thunderstorms across the county this week, corn condition improved. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST No comments available. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Due to extreme drought conditions, grass plants in pastures and hayfields are not only not producing, they have begun to die out. Some scattered pockets of rainfall, amounts range from 0 to 0.7 of an inch. Overall, county wide conditions continue to deteriorate due to continued drought. Continued dry conditions and high temperatures have continued to diminish yield potentials and crop quality. Soybeans planted early have started dying rapidly. Dry. Hot. Weather taking its toll on forage crops. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL Needing rain again badly! No rain this week. Pasture and hayfield conditions improved slightly but are declining again now due to drought. Pond and stream levels still extremely low. It has been very dry and hot. The showers that we received provided temporary relief. Dry land crops are pretty much shut down due to no rain and extreme heat. Irrigation situation is critical due to high fuel prices. Very severe situation here with no relief in sight. We are in terrible condition. Rainfall has passed us by. Pasture and forage crops are severely affected. Hay and forage shortages are critical. Timber managers are reporting losses in inventory due to excessively dry soils. Crops, pasture and hay fields are hurting from severe drought conditions. The dry soils and extreme heat have already cut the yields of all crops here. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Spot showers keeping things from burning up but water doesn't last long in severe heat. Peanut foliage feeders and some lesser cornstalk borers still scattered. Dryland cotton in danger. Hot! Dry!! DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST We received 0.19" of rainfall. Dry! DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Hot and dry. Same old song. Crops are suffering drastically. Yields will be reduced. Insect pressure picking up in peanuts. Dry weather has helped with disease control. Farmers applying herbicides to peanuts and cotton and fungicides to peanuts. Picking tobacco. Irrigating if possible. Hay production has been poor. Supplemental feeding to cattle. Applying fertilizers to cotton. We are in need of rain. Received 4 tenths Sunday in some areas. DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST Scattered rains in the area, but overall in severe need of rain. Cotton nearing cut-out due to lack of rain. Find agricultural statistics for your county, State, and the Nation at www.usda.gov/nass/. Media Contact: S. Radley Edwards, Acting Director USDA-NASS Georgia Field Office Phone: 706-546-2236 E-mail: nass-ga@nass.usda.gov Website: http://www.nass.usda.gov/ga