ga-crop-weather State Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date June 17, 2007 Issue GA-CW2407 Agricultural Summary June 18, 2007 RAIN IMPROVED CONDITIONS IN MOST OF THE STATE Temperatures were milder this week and most of the state received at least some rain, according to the USDA, NASS, Georgia Field Office. Highs averaged in the 80's most of the week. Average lows were in the 60's. Widely scattered showers again brought some relief from the drought. Topsoil moisture conditions were rated at 32% very short, 31% short, 36% adequate, and 1% surplus. Rain showers continued to benefit crops and improve crop conditions in all but the northwest corner of the state. Improvement was seen in pastures and hayfields, as well as in late-planted cotton, peanuts, and tobacco. Overall conditions remained dry. More rain was needed, especially in northwest Georgia which has missed out on most of the recent rainfall. Livestock producers were weaning calves early and reducing herd size due to limited feed and pasture. The small grains harvest was finishing up. Other activities included planting millet for grazing, plowing tobacco and applying sucker control and insecticides, applying post herbicides to peanuts and cotton, and fertilizing pastures. County Extension Agents reported an average of 6.0 days suitable for fieldwork. Crop Progress for Week Ending 06/17/07 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Stage : This Week : Prev Week : Prev Year : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn Silked : 67 47 70 63 Corn Dough : 16 6 24 22 Corn Dent : 0 NA 1 3 Soybeans Planted : 68 49 86 85 Soybeans Emerged : 49 31 75 74 Soybeans Blooming : 0 NA 2 3 Sorghum Planted : 72 63 84 78 Cotton Planted : 95 88 99 99 Cotton Squaring : 11 5 38 39 Cotton Setting Bolls : 0 NA 2 4 Winter Wheat Harvested : 92 79 90 81 Peaches Harvested : 24 11 24 31 Peanuts Planted : 97 88 99 99 Peanuts Blooming : 15 6 31 39 Peanuts Pegging : 2 0 9 11 Tobacco Harvested : 0 NA 0 1 Watermelons Harvested : 11 4 15 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Condition for Week Ending 06/17/07 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop :Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good :Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn : 19 22 28 28 3 Soybeans : 3 12 44 41 0 Sorghum : 15 15 49 21 0 Cotton : 8 20 47 24 1 Range and Pasture : 35 29 27 9 0 Apples : 84 10 6 0 0 Hay : 37 35 21 7 0 Peaches : 42 5 20 33 0 Peanuts : 4 20 46 30 0 Pecans : 16 19 35 25 5 Tobacco : 3 17 42 36 2 Watermelons : 3 14 45 34 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 06/17/07 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : This Week :Previous Week : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Very Short : 32 34 12 Short : 31 32 22 Adequate : 36 33 51 Surplus : 1 1 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 06/17/07, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Short : Short : Adequate : Surplus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 90 10 0 0 District 2 (NC) : 33 56 11 0 District 3 (NE) : 64 21 15 0 District 4 (WC) : 69 23 8 0 District 5 (C) : 16 47 36 1 District 6 (EC) : 8 22 68 2 District 7 (SW) : 53 19 28 0 District 8 (SC) : 5 33 59 3 District 9 (SE) : 3 14 80 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * 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. Pasture Condition for Week Ending 06/17/07, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good : Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 70 28 2 0 0 District 2 (NC) : 56 27 14 3 0 District 3 (NE) : 63 35 1 1 0 District 4 (WC) : 52 40 8 0 0 District 5 (C) : 16 30 43 11 0 District 6 (EC) : 11 26 46 17 0 District 7 (SW) : 60 14 18 8 0 District 8 (SC) : 1 35 42 22 0 District 9 (SE) : 1 15 63 48 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * 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 Summary for Week Ending 06/17/07, by Station Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Temperature : Precipitation : Location :-----------------:---------------------------------------:Soil : Max : Min : Avg :Weekly : Days :30 Day :60 Day : Season :Temp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albany : 96 65 79 1.56 1 3.35 3.89 16.89 86 Alma : 93 63 76 0.16 2 3.77 3.96 10.13 78 Alpharetta : 93 56 74 0.60 4 1.20 2.70 13.63 77 Arlington : 98 61 78 0.00 0 1.60 1.73 14.79 85 Attapulgus : 97 61 78 0.00 0 1.05 1.27 8.40 89 Blairsville : 89 50 68 2.49 3 3.10 4.05 14.21 73 Williamson : 94 55 75 0.74 2 1.25 2.52 14.01 81 Bowen : 94 62 76 0.36 2 4.51 4.53 12.42 85 Brunswick : 86 66 76 0.70 1 4.03 4.54 12.06 78 Byromville : 93 63 77 0.56 1 3.06 3.18 14.21 82 Byron : 93 61 75 1.44 2 3.72 3.72 13.96 80 Cairo : 97 64 78 0.00 0 4.75 5.01 12.62 79 Calhoun : 96 53 75 0.08 1 0.71 0.85 8.66 83 Pine Mountain : 93 60 75 1.25 5 2.26 4.35 18.54 80 Camilla : 97 62 79 0.02 1 0.63 0.73 12.56 90 Clarks Hill : 92 60 73 0.65 5 2.98 3.93 13.98 79 Cordele : 94 63 78 0.39 1 2.47 2.47 13.44 82 Covington : 93 56 74 1.03 5 1.93 3.43 14.40 78 Dahlonega : 90 53 70 1.59 4 1.70 3.47 16.68 75 Dallas : 94 56 75 0.01 1 0.49 2.53 12.20 79 Dawson : 95 63 77 0.33 1 1.78 1.78 12.28 81 Dearing : 94 60 74 0.91 4 3.05 3.65 14.14 78 Dempsey : 94 57 75 0.40 2 0.46 1.02 11.74 82 Dixie : 97 62 78 0.00 0 3.94 3.97 12.07 84 Dublin : 93 61 75 0.21 1 7.20 9.38 21.67 81 Duluth : 93 56 74 0.62 3 0.82 3.14 14.92 75 Dunwoody : 92 56 74 0.46 3 0.69 2.03 13.25 78 Eatonton : 94 55 74 0.81 4 2.49 2.66 13.56 82 Elberton : 92 59 73 0.65 6 2.33 4.16 17.73 77 Ellijay : 90 52 70 0.77 4 1.07 1.62 11.50 78 Rome : 96 56 76 0.22 1 0.73 1.16 7.82 81 Fort Valley : 95 62 76 2.29 1 4.16 4.26 11.39 81 Gainesville : 93 58 72 1.37 4 2.00 3.25 12.19 78 Georgetown : 98 61 77 0.45 4 1.18 1.80 17.56 84 Griffin : 94 57 75 1.01 3 1.26 1.94 12.57 78 Homerville : 95 59 76 0.28 1 4.64 4.70 11.97 82 Jonesboro : 96 57 75 0.44 2 1.04 3.05 13.27 79 Jeffersonville : 93 60 74 0.40 2 5.31 5.48 17.24 82 Lafayette : 96 54 74 0.09 1 0.23 2.22 11.48 79 McRae : 94 58 75 0.29 2 5.27 5.85 16.44 84 Midville : 94 62 74 3.08 4 7.04 7.54 17.85 82 Newton : 98 60 79 0.00 0 1.19 1.23 13.76 86 Plains : 95 62 77 1.10 3 2.04 2.04 13.09 84 Sasser : 93 63 77 1.58 1 3.30 3.51 16.69 80 Savannah : 89 64 74 2.13 4 6.80 8.01 15.00 79 Skidaway : 86 63 74 2.16 4 6.87 8.52 13.92 76 Sneads : 91 62 77 0.37 2 0.37 0.37 7.41 78 Statesboro : 93 62 73 1.55 4 8.87 9.31 18.46 82 Tifton : 93 63 77 0.42 2 4.60 4.61 12.24 80 Tiger : 89 50 67 3.32 5 3.51 6.25 22.55 73 Valdosta : 97 66 78 1.53 2 5.99 6.60 14.62 77 Vidalia : 94 62 75 2.18 5 9.37 9.38 18.72 81 Roopville : 94 57 75 0.36 3 0.40 1.16 12.24 84 Watkinsville : 93 57 75 0.46 2 1.26 3.41 14.14 79 Woodbine : 93 63 76 1.79 1 8.02 8.27 16.50 80 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Weather data are supplied by the 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 at www.georgiaweather.net. DISTRICT COMMENTS June 17, 2007 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Another hot and dry week. Livestock producers having to reduce herd size due to limited feed and pasture. Most beef producers have started early weaning. Planting vegetables (watermelon and pumpkins) have been delayed as well as soybeans. Getting close to 15 inches behind in rainfall for year. Scattered showers have occurred all around us but not here. Things are beginning to become critical. We are receiving a lot of calls from people searching for hay. We will be hosting an Emergency Drought Management meeting for livestock and forage producers on Monday, June 18th beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Gordon County Farm Bureau meeting room. Parts of the county have received some rain in brief thunder showers but are still very dry (from corn fields to Bermuda hay). All crops are dryland (no irrigation). DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Received some much needed afternoon showers several days this week. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Finally some rain. Scattered showers with some hail damage. Received scatter showers Monday and Tuesday evenings across the county dropping between 0.5 and 2.0 inches of rain. Improved soil moisture conditions in some areas from very poor or poor to poor or fair. Seeing a very slight improvement in some pastures and hayfields, but more rain is needed to get them above the fair condition. Varying amounts of scattered rainfall in the county. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL Things are looking up after we've received more than our share of showers and thunderstorms recently. The major concern is that the rainfall will continue and that we won't be faced with alfatoxins. Grain harvest finishing up. Soybean planting continues. Some rains have fallen in parts of the county over the past week and a half bringing some relief. However, very hot days quickly sap the moisture and we quickly get back into drought stress. Livestock producers are searching for any type of feed. Many cattle and calves are going to market early. Hay supplies are very short with little prospect for making much hay this year. Bermuda hay fields seed out at 3 to 4 inches high. Still extremely dry. The afternoon heating rain this week has been helpful, but has only been received in a few spots in the county. A good general rain is needed. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Tropical storm rain brought up stands on dry planted peanuts and cotton. Soybeans emerging quickly with heat and moisture being ideal. Pasture still short. Oats and rye yielding better than anticipated after freeze. Have been getting scattered showers. DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST We have received 0.5" up to 5 inches of rainfall. 3.8' of rainfall packed greenbeans into soil to prevent harvesting. Rains this past week helped to get most late stands of cotton and peanuts up. Several fields of peanut stands poor due to rotted seed. Pastures and hayfields showed good improvement with recent rains. Weed problems occurring due to rains with difficulty in treating due to non-uniform stands in cotton and peanuts. Still need more rain. DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Wrapping up planting. Planting millet for grazing. Plowing tobacco and applying sucker control and insecticides. Applying post herbicides to peanuts and cotton. Applying fertilizer to pastures. Need rainfall. Soil moisture is depleting fast. Scattered showers have helped everything. Rain showers continue to benefit crops and improve crop conditions. Rains have greatly helped pastures, hay fields, and cotton/peanut late plantings and replants. DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST We could still use some more rain. Been getting a few little scattered light showers from time to time. Things have definitely greened up since the first rain at the first of the month. Cow pastures have really come out as well as peanuts, cotton, and tobacco.