ga-crop-weather State Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date September 28, 2009 Issue GA-CW0107 Agricultural Summary September 28, 2009 FLOOD CONDITIONS Flooding, mostly in the northern part of the State, damaged crops and stopped field work, according to the USDA, NASS, Georgia Field Office. Daily average high temperatures were in the 80's. Average lows were in the 60's most of week. Soil moisture conditions were rated at 0% very short, 9% short, 54% adequate, and 37% surplus. Heavy rains caused flooding in low areas; which damaged nurseries, commercial vineyards and hay cuttings. Dry weather is needed to continue harvest. Growers who have late planted crops found the recent rains to be beneficial. Heavy rains caused early boll opening in cotton. Army worms appeared in some fields. Other activities included growers preparing for harvest. County Extension Agents reported an average of 3.9 days suitable for fieldwork. Crop Progress for Week Ending 09/27/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Stage : This Week : Prev Week : Prev Year : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Corn Harvested for Grain : 92 87 93 91 Soybeans Dropping Leaves : 28 18 26 34 Sorghum Harvested : 16 13 50 39 Cotton Bolls Opening : 57 44 77 77 Cotton Harvested : 0 NA 5 6 Winter Wheat Planted : 1 NA 1 1 Apples Harvested : 27 24 27 36 Peanuts Dug : 9 4 24 22 Peanuts Combined : 3 1 12 12 Rye Planted : 12 5 12 10 Other Small Grains Planted : 8 3 8 6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop Condition for Week Ending 09/27/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crop :Very Poor : Poor : Fair : Good :Excellent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Soybeans : 1 5 31 54 9 Sorghum : 1 6 44 46 3 Cotton : 2 7 32 45 14 Range and Pasture* : 1 8 35 48 8 Apples : 0 0 6 40 54 Hay : 2 10 33 48 7 Peanuts : 0 2 30 53 15 Pecans : 0 4 40 40 16 * District level data are available in the web release at http://www.nass.usda.gov/ga/ Topsoil Moisture for Week Ending 09/27/09* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : This Week :Previous Week : 5 Year Avg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Percent : Very Short : 0 2 20 Short : 9 13 32 Adequate : 54 58 41 Surplus : 37 27 7 * District level data are available in the web release at http://www.nass.usda.gov/ga/ Weather Summary for Week Ending 09/27/09, by Station Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Temperature : Precipitation : Location :-----------------:-------------------------------------:Soil : Max : Min : Avg :Weekly : Days :30 Day :60 Day:Season :Temp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alapaha : 89 68 79 0.14 1 2.26 5.74 39.23 80 Albany : 91 72 82 0.03 1 1.16 8.06 42.05 87 Alma : 89 71 80 0.39 2 2.14 8.71 41.41 81 Alpharetta : 81 65 73 6.62 3 13.95 18.96 49.11 74 Arabi : 88 70 79 0.11 1 4.26 11.87 44.83 82 Arlington : 91 68 79 0.34 4 4.81 12.60 46.76 81 Atlanta : 82 68 75 3.71 2 9.77 15.36 42.31 0 Attapulgus : 89 70 79 1.30 2 3.56 8.62 41.16 83 Baxley : 88 68 78 0.28 1 3.28 9.17 39.73 81 Brunswick : 87 74 80 0.00 0 5.51 18.84 49.02 84 Cairo : 89 71 80 1.03 2 4.02 10.17 39.92 80 Calhoun : 81 64 72 4.32 4 6.23 12.47 41.36 77 Cordele : 87 70 79 2.03 3 7.48 16.92 40.88 79 Covington : 83 64 74 1.63 2 6.06 10.44 40.07 78 Dahlonega : 79 63 71 4.70 5 15.77 20.85 55.00 72 Dallas : 80 66 73 7.11 3 17.01 23.13 48.89 76 Danielsville : 81 65 73 4.30 2 9.39 12.14 36.72 77 Dawson : 89 70 79 0.28 2 2.51 14.40 43.97 82 Dearing : 86 69 77 1.57 5 6.47 11.01 38.42 79 Dixie : 90 71 80 0.70 3 5.18 9.00 37.02 82 Douglas : 87 69 78 0.33 1 3.04 8.61 40.72 81 Dublin : 88 70 79 0.58 4 7.58 11.57 34.87 81 Dunwoody : 80 65 73 8.26 5 15.78 20.14 50.16 75 Eatonton : 84 66 75 5.28 3 14.91 19.87 50.86 77 Elberton : 84 66 75 2.05 4 6.35 8.42 39.35 77 Ellijay : 78 62 70 3.42 5 13.06 18.74 44.03 74 Gainesville : 79 65 72 3.41 2 8.48 13.53 43.56 74 Georgetown : 88 69 79 0.11 2 3.92 12.12 51.33 80 Griffin : 84 67 75 1.67 3 4.22 6.84 37.50 78 Hatley : 87 70 79 0.04 2 6.63 12.30 39.46 81 Homerville : 90 69 79 0.13 2 1.69 6.40 44.63 81 Johns Creek : 81 64 72 7.44 2 16.20 24.19 52.41 75 Jonesboro : 85 66 76 2.06 3 7.32 12.12 42.39 77 Lake Seminole : 87 75 81 0.04 4 1.38 4.91 34.75 82 Moultrie : 89 71 80 0.17 2 1.36 8.32 41.13 85 Newton : 91 70 81 0.57 3 5.08 11.28 47.98 82 Odum : 88 69 79 0.67 4 5.35 11.48 43.55 82 Ossabaw : 87 73 80 0.47 2 5.20 14.17 50.22 80 Pine Mountain : 85 67 76 1.29 3 5.17 10.54 43.11 78 Plains : 87 70 78 1.20 3 2.07 8.74 39.43 80 Roopville : 84 67 76 1.41 2 10.05 14.03 40.98 77 Sasser : 89 69 79 0.42 3 2.15 11.54 40.20 80 Savannah : 87 70 79 0.80 2 3.27 12.93 46.63 82 Shellman : 89 70 79 0.52 2 3.62 16.22 42.70 83 Skidaway : 85 73 79 0.39 3 4.16 13.74 45.09 79 Sparta : 83 66 75 5.98 4 18.34 22.31 51.09 77 Statesboro : 88 69 78 2.55 2 3.33 7.96 30.99 83 Tennille : 85 68 76 2.30 5 7.92 15.69 48.00 79 Tifton : 88 71 80 0.61 3 2.27 9.70 45.31 80 Tiger : 76 60 68 7.02 4 15.88 21.71 57.85 72 Unadilla : 85 68 77 1.84 3 9.00 15.67 39.98 80 Valdosta : 89 73 81 1.48 4 2.98 9.77 40.41 82 Vienna : 87 70 78 0.71 4 4.30 10.71 40.20 80 Vidalia : 88 70 79 0.44 5 10.75 21.54 52.37 81 Williamson : 85 66 75 2.05 5 4.11 9.54 37.44 78 Woodbine : 89 71 80 0.00 0 2.30 11.86 45.37 82 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *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 September 27, 2009 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Obviously a lot of rain last week that slowed harvest down. Most will try to get a 3rd or 4th cutting of hay. Like many of our Northwest Counties all of our low lying pastures and hay fields were hit by the floods. The extent of the damage has not been totally determined. Eight to 13" of rain last week has stopped all field work. Flooding in low lying areas, particularly in the southern part of the county. Severe flooding (10 + inches) has damaged a lot of crops, fences, and agricultural equipment/facilities. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Second round of armyworms is working through hayfields and pastures in county. Lots of flooding erosion and debris. Very heavy rain caused flooding of area streams, extensive losses to a nursery, strawberry farm, and many pasture fences. Commercial vineyards report losses due to the extensive periods of rain at harvest time. Cotton seed sprouting in the boll due to early boll opening and heavy rains. Ryegrass over seeding already up. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST Rainfall caused much damage in floodplains. Constant rain all week prevented any field work. Destroyed many hay cuttings and some potential final hay cuts when the grass laid flat. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Flooding in the northern and most western parts of the county. Most of the county received around 4 inches of rain throughout the week. Timely rain and amounts, actually good have used a little more as many ponds have dropped significantly. Soybeans are in real good shape, cool season forages beginning to come on and small grains for grazing and seed are beginning to get planted. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL We have received 14.86 inches of rainfall over the past 6 days. We are waiting to see if we'll receive any additional flooding. We may suffer crop loss of fall vegetables as well as food plots which are now under water. Very wet here again this week. Soybean fields maturing and dropping leaves. Still a little corn left to harvest. Cotton opening up. No peanuts dug yet! Plenty of beneficial rain this week. Pasture and hayfields producing lots of grass. Finally got the most significant rain of the year. Since we planted so late it will be beneficial. Harvest is about 3 weeks behind and we will need some dry weather now. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Wet, rainy, cloudy weather has put a lick on cotton. Hard locking bolls, rotting some bolls, ruining the color of bolls already open. Just beginning to defoliate some dry land fields but the bulk of the crop is two weeks away. Peanut maturity is behind due to late planting, cloudy, cool spring weather. About 70% of county peanuts are Ga-06G, with the remaining acres being in Ga- 02C and Fl-07. They look very good and if growers will be patient, we can harvest a very good crop both quantity and quality. Should be digging by middle of next week. Soybeans look very promising, both irrigated and dry land. No insects to speak of. Need some good open days with sunshine! DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST Adequate rain received over several days. DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Peanuts are not looking as good as expected. Disease pops and lower yields expected. Cotton looks good in general. Next week we will begin digging some peanuts and defoliating cotton. Corn yields down. Tobacco yields down and low grades are causing companies not to buy it. Cutting last good hay crop. Peanut harvest will start full-scale next week. Cotton defoliation sprays are being applied somewhat this week and more next week. Cotton Harvest will slowly pick up speed over the next 3 weeks. DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST No comments available.