ga-crop-weather State Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date August 30, 2009 Issue GA-CW3509 Agricultural Summary August 31, 2009 INCREASED TOPSOIL MOISTURE Rains provided relief to much of the State, according to the USDA, NASS, Georgia Field Office. Daily average high temperatures were in the 80's. Average lows were in the 60's. Soil moisture conditions were rated at 1% very short, 17% short, 68% adequate, and 14% surplus. Rain helped to improve crop conditions and top soil moisture. There are pockets throughout the State that are still experiencing drought conditions. The lack of rain, in these areas, has been detrimental to crops. Boll rot has been reported in cotton due to the continued wetness. Showers delayed corn harvest in some areas. Pasture and hay conditions improved slightly from the rain. Some farmers were unable to cut silage due to the wet conditions. Other activities included applying fungicides and spraying for insects. County Extension Agents reported an average of 4.8 days suitable for fieldwork. Crop Progress for Week Ending 08/30/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Stage : This Week : Prev Week : Prev Year : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn Mature : 92 84 91 91 Corn Harvested for Grain : 45 29 40 44 Soybeans Setting Pods : 85 72 77 83 Soybeans Dropping Leaves : 1 0 2 6 Sorghum Harvested : 4 1 25 20 Cotton Bolls Opening : 10 4 18 25 Apples Harvested : 15 12 11 14 Tobacco Harvested : 79 64 70 83 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Condition for Week Ending 08/30/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop :Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good :Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn : 1 10 36 45 8 Soybeans : 1 6 37 50 6 Sorghum : 1 8 48 41 2 Cotton : 2 8 32 46 12 Range and Pasture : 3 9 36 44 8 Apples : 0 4 7 35 54 Hay : 2 9 39 43 7 Peanuts : 0 4 28 53 15 Pecans : 0 3 39 42 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 08/30/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : This Week :Previous Week : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Very Short : 1 4 11 Short : 17 27 26 Adequate : 68 61 54 Surplus : 14 8 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 08/30/09, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Short : Short : Adequate : Surplus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 0 14 75 11 District 2 (NC) : 0 15 77 8 District 3 (NE) : 9 33 57 1 District 4 (WC) : 3 20 60 17 District 5 (C) : 2 23 63 12 District 6 (EC) : 1 22 62 15 District 7 (SW) : 0 9 60 31 District 8 (SC) : 0 7 78 15 District 9 (SE) : 2 14 82 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * 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 08/30/09, by District -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- District : Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good : Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : District 1 (NW) : 5 15 27 48 5 District 2 (NC) : 1 7 38 51 3 District 3 (NE) : 4 12 43 38 3 District 4 (WC) : 9 14 49 24 4 District 5 (C) : 0 10 38 35 17 District 6 (EC) : 0 5 33 62 0 District 7 (SW) : 1 2 23 56 18 District 8 (SC) : 0 1 29 55 15 District 9 (SE) : 0 1 44 53 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * 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 08/30/09, by Station Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Temperature : Precipitation : Location :-----------------:-------------------------------------:Soil : Max : Min : Avg :Weekly : Days :30 Day :60 Day:Season :Temp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albany : 88 70 79 1.56 3 6.81 12.63 41.22 85 Alma : 87 70 79 1.30 4 6.53 9.04 38.39 80 Atlanta : 84 67 75 2.83 4 5.42 7.61 26.73 NA Attapulgus : 86 66 76 1.88 3 4.04 9.50 37.35 84 Blue Ridge : 80 63 71 1.53 5 6.16 9.89 39.25 74 Byron : 87 66 77 1.45 3 3.90 6.54 32.80 80 Calhoun : 83 64 73 0.90 4 5.50 9.32 35.26 78 Covington : 84 62 73 1.88 3 4.63 7.47 38.35 78 Dahlonega : 81 63 72 1.46 2 4.48 8.37 39.57 77 Dallas : 82 65 73 2.18 3 5.96 9.73 32.66 78 Danielsville : 86 64 75 0.84 3 2.31 3.47 27.50 84 Dearing : 89 68 78 0.92 2 4.38 7.94 32.48 83 Dixie : 87 69 78 1.45 2 3.42 7.46 31.81 82 Douglas : 85 68 77 1.05 4 5.16 7.72 37.41 81 Dunwoody : 83 65 74 3.00 3 4.58 8.14 35.34 77 Elberton : 90 66 78 1.18 3 2.50 5.51 34.06 82 Ellijay : 81 62 71 1.29 4 5.13 7.74 28.48 76 Gainesville : 83 67 75 1.06 3 4.91 6.54 35.17 80 Griffin : 85 66 75 2.04 4 3.28 7.68 34.20 78 Jeffersonville : 86 66 76 0.83 4 6.44 8.96 29.09 80 Johns Creek : 83 59 71 3.75 3 7.95 13.84 36.79 78 Jonesboro : 85 65 75 4.12 4 5.50 9.47 36.39 79 Lake Seminole : 87 71 79 0.16 2 2.03 9.48 33.36 84 Midville : 87 67 77 2.25 3 7.52 11.20 34.09 81 Newton : 88 68 78 1.10 4 6.07 11.14 42.95 83 Odum : 87 67 77 1.27 4 6.15 9.71 38.22 82 Ossabaw : 87 72 79 2.06 2 8.62 19.27 41.48 80 Roopville : 85 65 75 1.51 3 3.64 6.26 31.30 78 Rome : 85 67 76 1.36 3 4.02 9.23 43.18 78 Sasser : 86 67 77 4.42 3 9.08 12.56 38.30 79 Sparta : 87 64 76 2.35 5 3.76 5.41 32.71 81 Tennille : 85 62 73 2.55 4 7.43 11.13 40.41 80 Tifton : 86 70 78 0.95 4 6.92 14.70 43.32 80 Tiger : 81 61 71 1.37 4 5.35 7.74 41.19 77 Unadilla : 85 66 76 2.57 4 6.68 9.10 31.72 80 Valdosta : 88 71 79 2.03 2 4.94 11.03 37.42 82 Vienna : 87 67 77 2.76 3 6.18 8.82 36.01 80 Vidalia : 88 69 78 7.86 3 9.76 15.15 41.81 82 Wat-UGA : 85 66 75 0.27 1 2.32 4.41 28.52 81 Williamson : 85 64 74 3.22 3 5.33 8.41 33.72 79 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *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 30, 2009 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Cooler weather this week and a received some needed moisture. Over the past week we had about 3 1/2 inches of rain. Heavy rain on Friday and Sunday, with puddling in low lying areas. Received 1.9 inches of rain in the last week. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Armyworms starting to show up in hay fields. Heavy rain this week improved overall crop conditions. Armyworms have arrived, farmers spraying mostly Sevin to control. Spotty light rains that have greened up pastures and Bermuda hay fields. Farmers watching for opportunity to put up one additional cutting of hay following spotty rains. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST Decent rains are pulling fescue out of dormancy. Hopefully it'll result in a final hay cutting. Soil moisture improvement should also benefit folks hoping to overseed pastures. Fall planting and overseeding is critical to our drought ravaged forages. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Received much needed rain. Maybe a little too much at one time. Farmers have been unable to get into the fields to chop silage for a couple of days due to the wet conditions. Heavy armyworm pressure. Have wreaked havoc on hayfields and sorghum crops as well as athletic fields. Need rain. Received 1.5 to 2 inches of much needed rainfall. County got some much needed rainfall. Second and some third cuttings took place sometimes to avoid losses to armyworms which were also sprayed to control. Soybeans making good progress and late week / weekend rains were very beneficial; most of county had +- 1 inch. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL We have gotten 1.47 inches of rainfall over the past 24 hours which is our high for the 7 day period. We are still on high alert for outdoor burning. Corn is at 1/2 milk line so silage harvest has begun. Forages continue to be challenged by dry conditions. Wide spread rain this weekend - averaging 7/10 of inch. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Pockets of the county are extremely dry. Crops in these areas are suffering. Cotton, soybeans and peanuts in these areas is not progressing well. In fact, most of the cotton in these areas has shut down. Getting some scattered showers, hard rain in places but it's about too late for many of our dry land cotton fields which had cut out and quit blooming. Some spraying for worms and stink bugs in cotton but no major outbreaks of any pests. Irrigated soybeans look real good and many dry land fields still have late season potential if we get the timely rains. Surprisingly, soybean foliage feeder numbers have stayed very low and the stink bugs haven't found the soybeans yet although we expect them to move in from picked corn fields as we approach mid pod-fill stage in many fields. Corn harvest is temporarily halted by showers. Most growers are mildly disappointed in yields which are hovering near 190 bushel average. Good growers figure they're down about 15 bushels/A from normal years. T hat rainy May drowned a lot of places which accounts for most of the yield loss although we believe the late incidence and severity of Northern corn blight also attributed to some yield loss. Have sprayed some Bermuda grass hayfields for armyworms, beets mostly. Peanuts look good as growers are finishing up their soil fungicide programs and can finish out with foliage fungicides. We got over 2 1/2 inches of rain Sunday afternoon/evening in the Augusta area. DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST We continue to receive multiple rain events each week. This is delaying corn harvest. Two heavy rains this week. Many cotton fields are beginning to show signs of boll rot. Soybean rust was confirmed in the county and growers have initiated protective fungicide sprays. Welcome rain came Thursday and Friday. DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Getting some much needed rainfall. Cotton and peanuts look pretty good in general. Spraying peanuts and pastures and hay fields for worms and cotton for stink bugs. Applying fungicides to peanuts. Mowing and harrowing up tobacco stalks. Cutting hay earlier in week before rain. Still praying for a miracle to get a buyer for the Poultry Plant in Douglas. Cotton farmers are still fighting fall armyworms corn ear worms and stink bugs. Early planted cotton is finishing up top bolls and much of this early cotton is beginning to open. In peanuts we are seeing falls in peanuts, three cornered alfalfa hoppers in large numbers in many fields. Also some early leaf spot on peanut. This past week allowed two good working day for farm work! As of today August 28 2009, we have received three plus inches of rain in the county. Our crop look very good with these August rains! DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST No comments available.