ga-crop-weather State Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date August 4, 2008 Issue GA-CW3108 Agricultural Summary August 4, 2008 ISOLATED RAIN Isolated rains improved crop conditions in some areas, according to the USDA, NASS, Georgia Field Office. Daily average high temperatures were in the low 90's. Average lows were in the upper 70's most of week. Soil moisture conditions were rated at 16% very short, 40% short, 42% adequate, and 2% surplus. Pastures and hayfields benefited from localized showers. However, dry conditions continue in some parts of the state. Cattlemen have reduced their herds due to a lack of grazing and hay. Fall armyworms are appearing in pastures and hayfields. The high heat and humidity has caused some heat stress on livestock. Other activities included spraying fungicides and boron on peanuts, spraying cotton for stink bugs and harvesting hay. County Extension Agents reported an average of 6.0 days suitable for fieldwork. Crop Progress for Week Ending 08/03/08 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Stage : This Week : Prev Week : Prev Year : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn Dough : 95 90 92 95 Corn Dent : 80 67 76 80 Corn Mature : 30 16 34 42 Corn Harvested for Grain : 1 NA 0 3 Soybeans Blooming : 65 52 53 70 Soybeans Setting Pods : 28 15 24 41 Cotton Squaring : 96 93 94 98 Cotton Setting Bolls : 78 66 67 84 Cotton Bolls Opening : 0 NA 0 0 Apples Harvested : 4 1 3 6 Peaches Harvested : 89 80 92 89 Peanuts Pegging : 92 84 88 95 Tobacco Harvested : 36 26 38 48 Watermelons Harvested : 96 94 97 97 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Condition for Week Ending 08/03/08 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop :Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good :Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn : 7 17 31 37 8 Soybeans : 7 17 42 31 3 Sorghum : 4 12 45 38 1 Cotton : 5 9 36 41 9 Range and Pasture : 11 22 38 28 1 Apples : 0 0 13 24 63 Hay : 10 25 42 22 1 Peanuts : 2 7 34 46 11 Pecans : 2 10 41 42 5 Tobacco : 2 7 29 45 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 08/03/08 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : This Week :Previous Week : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Very Short : 16 16 10 Short : 40 40 30 Adequate : 42 42 50 Surplus : 2 2 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 08/03/08, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Short : Short : Adequate : Surplus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 9 29 56 6 District 2 (NC) : 4 54 38 4 District 3 (NE) : 27 43 30 0 District 4 (WC) : 13 30 52 5 District 5 (C) : 24 46 30 0 District 6 (EC) : 22 53 25 0 District 7 (SW) : 16 36 44 4 District 8 (SC) : 15 37 46 2 District 9 (SE) : 10 32 58 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. Pasture Condition for Week Ending 08/03/08, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good : Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 3 11 53 33 0 District 2 (NC) : 5 13 42 38 2 District 3 (NE) : 33 32 25 10 0 District 4 (WC) : 7 24 38 31 0 District 5 (C) : 19 29 37 13 2 District 6 (EC) : 22 35 35 8 0 District 7 (SW) : 6 19 32 39 4 District 8 (SC) : 5 12 43 38 2 District 9 (SE) : 3 16 39 42 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 Summary for Week Ending 08/03/08, by Station Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Temperature : Precipitation : Location :-----------------:---------------------------------------:Soil : Max : Min : Avg :Weekly : Days :30 Day :60 Day : Season :Temp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albany : 94 74 84 1.81 3 6.31 10.80 26.94 89 Alma : 91 73 82 2.21 4 6.21 7.99 27.92 82 Williamson : 95 67 79 0.83 6 2.72 6.75 23.71 84 Byron : 97 68 82 0.22 2 1.94 6.50 25.04 86 Cairo : 92 70 80 1.07 4 3.12 11.44 35.79 83 Calhoun : 95 64 77 0.53 3 2.91 4.72 23.00 82 Camilla : 91 66 77 2.50 3 4.38 11.03 34.03 87 Cordele : 94 70 82 0.00 0 1.61 2.69 20.42 88 Dallas : 94 69 79 1.27 3 5.91 7.00 24.80 82 Dawson : 94 71 81 0.12 1 6.73 10.73 27.26 86 Dearing : 97 72 81 0.95 3 4.18 5.61 25.43 84 Dixie : 91 66 77 1.28 4 3.42 9.52 29.00 84 Dublin : 98 72 84 0.04 1 1.10 4.57 23.05 87 Dunwoody : 94 67 79 0.20 3 5.05 7.30 26.65 81 Eatonton : 93 69 81 0.14 1 5.20 7.74 28.24 85 Elberton : 98 68 81 0.00 0 5.28 6.39 22.66 84 Ellijay : 91 62 75 0.51 3 7.45 9.39 32.98 81 Rome : 93 68 79 0.53 3 4.12 4.89 23.27 82 Gainesville : 95 69 81 0.05 1 3.26 4.59 24.40 89 Griffin : 91 70 81 0.98 3 3.14 5.80 21.28 83 McRae : 97 71 82 0.44 2 2.74 5.40 26.07 87 Midville : 97 72 82 0.36 2 4.26 4.99 25.14 87 Nahunta : 95 70 79 1.19 5 3.71 6.74 20.95 85 Newton : 94 71 81 0.76 3 4.29 6.83 23.24 85 Plains : 93 71 82 0.10 3 2.84 5.77 23.73 87 Sasser : 92 73 82 0.04 2 4.50 9.30 0.00 83 Savannah : 95 73 81 0.47 5 5.58 6.89 18.41 85 Skidaway : 95 73 81 0.11 4 4.08 10.02 23.84 84 Statesboro : 95 72 81 0.53 4 3.95 6.10 25.05 89 Tifton : 90 73 82 2.33 4 4.97 7.15 26.53 83 Tiger : 91 61 76 0.42 3 4.22 5.54 30.73 84 Valdosta : 92 71 79 1.66 6 4.56 9.42 28.21 82 Vidalia : 95 72 81 0.12 2 5.88 7.91 24.49 85 Roopville : 95 70 79 1.34 4 3.30 6.27 26.54 84 Woodbine : 91 73 82 1.53 5 11.80 14.80 34.27 84 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *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 August 3, 2008 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Area wide showers Thursday evening were a very welcome site. But things have been so dry that Friday was dry enough to continue field work. We are seeing a lot of water levels in ponds drop or dry up. Scattered thunderstorms this week have greatly improved soil moisture. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL We have had isolated rains, but the dry areas in our county just get drier. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST Rain is helping the grass begin to break dormancy, but it's hampering what little hay is available. Showers last week have slightly improved growing conditions. More rain needed to sustain improvement. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Scattered rainfall continues to improve crop conditions. Couple of days with enough scattered showers to prevent much decline in conditions, but little improvement seen. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL Very hot and humid! A few scattered showers. Need more rain badly. Dry conditions continue. Heavy rain occurred on Friday in southern part of the county. Heat is taking its toll in addition to lack of rain. Cattlemen reducing their herds due to the lack of grazing and hay. Fall armyworms are appearing in pastures and hay fields. Pigweed battle continues. Recent spotty rains have helped farmers grow their pastures and hayfields. Fall armyworms have become a concern with damage occurring in some fields throughout the county. High heat and humidity causing some heat stress on livestock. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Conditions are about the same. Areas that have received scattered showers have significantly improved. Showers still not widespread enough to improve conditions drastically. Seeing some CEW and fall armyworms on peanuts, but not many. Big news is the discovery of what most certainly appears to be tropical spiderwort in a cotton field, the first I've documented. Pigweed resistance is widespread but, in most cases, it's either ALS or glyphosate, but not both. Very hard to determine resistance vs. bad application or spraying after weeds were too big. However, I've seen enough to know (and my growers agree) we have our work cut out for us from here on. A quart of glyphosate alone is history in all but a few fields. Boll retention is good but plants are stunted and stink bugs are plentiful. Many dry land peanut fields will never lap this year but we had a lot of fields that made 3,000 pounds without lapping last year. After the last two years, I won't say it's over till late August. We have had these same dry conditions and still made crops. The next 2-3 weeks will tell the tale because this struggling cotton will be cutting out without rain and peanuts will be through making pods that can mature. DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST Scattered thunder showers continue to provide rain for 85% of the county. Corn harvest began this week. Even with frequent rains, crops stressed within 3 days due to extreme heat during heavy reproduction stages of all crops. We still have some small areas that have been missed by the resent rains. DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Getting frequent rainfall. Insects showing up in cotton and peanuts. Harvesting hay between showers. Spraying fungicides and boron on peanuts. Tobacco harvest in full swing. Spraying cotton for stink bugs. The crops have continue to get spotty rain show, most areas have got rain on the crops. The crops for most part look good at this reporting period. DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST Much better rainfall this week. However, a lot of cotton topping out at less than knee high. Very few peanuts have lapped the middles. Soybeans suffering too. Good rainfall in many areas but there continues to be some dry spots in the county.