ga-crop-weather State Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date May 24, 2009 Issue GA-CW2109 Agricultural Summary May 26, 2009 RAIN CONTINUED Rains slowed planting progress, according to the USDA, NASS, Georgia Field Office. Daily average high temperatures ranged from the low 70's to low 80's. Average lows were in the 60's most of week. Soil moisture conditions were rated at 1% very short, 8% short, 60% adequate, and 31% surplus. Growers struggled with wet conditions, causing planting and harvesting to fall behind. Recent rains delayed hay harvesting and hay quality suffered in some areas. In areas where rains have not been as frequent, hay looked good. Wet fields stopped peanut, cotton and soybean planting and field work. Wet weather caused some disease problems in watermelons. Seedling disease, a fungal disease in cotton, showed up due to the cooler and wet conditions. Other activities included spreading poultry litter and applying herbicides to pasture weeds. County Extension Agents reported an average of 3.8 days suitable for fieldwork. Crop Progress for Week Ending 05/24/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Stage : This Week : Prev Week : Prev Year : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn Silked : 2 1 3 4 Soybeans Planted : 30 21 41 38 Soybeans Emerged : 17 9 24 24 Sorghum Planted : 25 20 48 42 Cotton Planted : 53 40 65 68 Winter Wheat Harvested : 5 2 7 14 Onions Harvested : 75 69 82 79 Peaches Harvested : 8 3 6 9 Peanuts Planted : 52 34 64 61 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Condition for Week Ending 05/24/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop :Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good :Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn : 1 7 29 50 13 Cotton : 3 6 44 43 4 Winter Wheat : 0 6 43 42 9 Range and Pasture : 0 3 28 60 9 Apples : 0 0 10 30 60 Hay : 0 3 35 54 8 Onions : 0 1 42 51 6 Peaches : 0 47 49 4 0 Peanuts : 1 3 40 53 3 Tobacco : 0 1 27 60 12 Watermelons : 0 10 44 40 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 05/24/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : This Week :Previous Week : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Very Short : 1 2 23 Short : 8 15 34 Adequate : 60 68 41 Surplus : 31 15 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 05/24/09, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Short : Short : Adequate : Surplus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 0 2 76 22 District 2 (NC) : 0 3 88 9 District 3 (NE) : 0 10 88 2 District 4 (WC) : 0 11 70 19 District 5 (C) : 0 5 56 39 District 6 (EC) : 0 11 66 23 District 7 (SW) : 4 18 42 36 District 8 (SC) : 0 1 49 50 District 9 (SE) : 0 12 38 50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * A list of the counties in each of the nine Georgia Agricultural Statistics Districts is available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Georgia/Publications/County_Esti mates/index.asp. Pasture Condition for Week Ending 05/24/09, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good : Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 0 6 32 61 1 District 2 (NC) : 0 0 6 76 18 District 3 (NE) : 0 0 11 64 25 District 4 (WC) : 0 7 37 53 3 District 5 (C) : 0 5 26 62 7 District 6 (EC) : 0 0 33 66 1 District 7 (SW) : 1 8 37 46 8 District 8 (SC) : 0 1 32 58 9 District 9 (SE) : 0 0 33 56 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * A list of the counties in each of the nine Georgia Agricultural Statistics Districts is available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Georgia/Publications/County_Esti mates/index.asp. Weather Summary for Week Ending 05/24/09, by Station Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Temperature : Precipitation : Location :-----------------:-------------------------------------:Soil : Max : Min : Avg :Weekly : Days :30 Day :60 Day:Season :Temp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alapaha : 78 64 71 2.14 4 6.19 21.25 26.09 72 Albany : 79 65 72 1.98 6 4.41 19.72 24.54 75 Alpharetta : 77 60 69 0.30 4 3.44 9.37 22.20 71 Arabi : 77 64 71 0.97 5 7.85 20.37 24.80 72 Arlington : 79 64 71 2.31 4 3.27 17.78 25.75 74 Atlanta : 75 61 68 0.34 5 3.38 8.96 16.76 NA Baxley : 77 63 70 1.65 5 7.72 21.29 25.30 72 Blairsville : 74 56 65 1.32 3 6.28 10.10 19.56 67 Blue Ridge : 76 54 65 0.15 2 8.35 12.97 26.53 68 Brunswick : 76 67 71 2.74 6 6.06 14.41 19.75 72 Byromville : 77 63 70 1.39 5 7.27 15.82 21.98 71 Byron : 77 62 69 1.74 5 5.36 15.20 22.83 70 Cairo : 79 65 72 1.80 5 2.75 16.09 23.40 71 Calhoun : 79 56 67 0.33 3 5.24 10.32 24.13 70 Camilla : 79 65 72 1.48 4 4.16 19.46 27.21 75 Cordele : 78 64 71 1.04 5 2.65 13.83 17.52 72 Dahlonega : 74 59 67 1.29 3 6.48 13.44 26.90 66 Dallas : 76 61 68 0.19 3 4.34 10.21 21.28 69 Danielsville : 77 60 68 0.33 3 2.83 9.95 21.33 73 Dawson : 78 63 71 2.40 5 5.07 15.87 21.75 73 Dearing : 78 62 70 1.16 4 6.81 14.32 22.59 72 Dixie : 79 65 72 0.68 6 3.04 14.83 20.20 73 Dublin : 78 63 70 2.72 6 4.21 12.92 18.27 72 Dunwoody : 75 60 67 0.18 2 5.13 12.21 23.65 70 Eatonton : 77 61 69 2.74 5 4.21 15.69 27.19 71 Elberton : 80 61 70 0.21 3 5.61 13.17 22.51 72 Ellijay : 76 56 66 1.04 3 6.23 10.65 22.00 70 Gainesville : 75 61 68 1.23 3 3.74 10.93 24.69 70 Georgetown : 75 61 68 1.59 4 11.10 21.22 28.43 71 Griffin : 74 61 68 1.54 5 3.50 10.41 24.58 70 Homerville : 77 64 70 6.67 7 8.44 19.22 27.67 72 Johns Creek : 76 60 68 0.32 5 3.23 9.78 21.39 69 Jonesboro : 76 62 69 0.79 6 4.80 13.16 24.82 70 Lake Seminole : 76 67 72 1.20 4 1.21 14.00 19.58 72 Moultrie : 77 65 71 1.87 6 4.22 20.08 27.07 71 Newton : 80 66 73 1.69 4 2.31 18.36 26.99 75 Odum : 76 64 70 1.40 5 5.11 18.89 22.94 70 Pine Mountain : 75 61 68 1.17 5 3.44 12.99 26.73 70 Plains : 75 61 68 1.39 5 6.07 16.64 24.48 70 Roopville : 76 61 69 1.04 5 5.12 11.94 23.79 70 Rome : 79 59 69 0.65 3 6.59 12.38 29.30 70 Sasser : 77 64 71 2.93 6 6.18 17.10 21.67 72 Savannah : 76 65 70 3.46 4 7.18 16.60 20.76 72 Shellman : 77 64 70 1.64 5 3.87 12.37 17.02 72 Skidaway : 73 65 69 4.84 4 8.82 17.58 22.05 69 Sparta : 77 61 69 1.04 5 4.53 14.84 24.52 71 Statesboro : 77 62 69 1.32 5 5.37 12.87 16.09 72 Tennille : 76 60 68 2.37 5 9.19 17.98 25.38 71 Tifton : 77 65 71 3.16 5 6.00 21.12 26.30 71 Tiger : 73 56 64 1.80 3 7.37 14.81 27.21 70 Unadilla : 77 62 69 1.66 5 5.25 13.60 19.59 71 Valdosta : 79 66 72 3.29 6 5.11 16.04 22.07 74 Vienna : 78 63 70 1.15 5 3.99 16.68 24.43 71 Vidalia : 77 64 70 4.17 5 7.58 18.17 23.14 71 Wat-UGA : 76 61 69 0.60 3 3.41 10.81 22.89 70 Williamson : 75 61 68 1.39 4 3.23 10.49 23.09 70 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *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 May 24, 2009 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST No comments available. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Strawberry harvest has begun, some corn planted this week, the continuing threat of rain is delaying hay harvest-hay quality is beginning to suffer DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST Rain still hampering the overdue hay harvest. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Growers are now struggling with wet conditions. Planting is falling behind. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL We have received 2.78 inches of rainfall over the past 7 days. Planting has been delayed somewhat. Farmers growing concerned that wheat is going to sprout in the head from all the rain. Corn still yellow, looking poorly from wetness. Farmers struggling to get into field to plant. Windy early in the week prevented spraying weeds in crops. Rain, rain, rain. No one is complaining but need a break to get small grains out of fields. Planting stopped due to wet fields. Ryegrass hay harvest looks very good. With all the rain in the spring we have had good tonnage. Now we need a couple of dry weeks to get it up. I saw some alfalfa being harvested where the stems were 4 to 5 feet long. Again a lot of tonnage, just need to be able to get it up, dry and cured. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Heavy down pours in areas. DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST Wet weather is causing some disease problems in watermelons. We are seeing some seedling disease show up in cotton due to the cooler and wet conditions. Rains have delayed completion of peanut planting. Basically no row crop activities this week. DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Wet weather has ceased peanut, cotton and soybean planting and all field work. Thrips populations have been increasing and concern for tobacco budworms soon. If it ever dries off, we will be planting rest of crop at full steam due to lack of days left to plant timely. Wettest May in years. Suspect foliar disease will increase after the rains. Our poultry plant got a bid to be purchased. Growers and community is praying for a blessing! We have rainfall occurring daily for this week. This rain has recharged our water sources and crops/fields look good. This rain has improved our crops DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST Up to 4.5 inches of rain from Friday to Friday.