Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date August 29, 2004 MORE SCATTERED SHOWERS Another round of widely scattered showers and thunderstorms passed through parts of the State late last week, according to the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service. Some areas of the State have received significant portions of rain while other areas remained dry. Farmers continued to irrigate where needed. Crops continue in mostly good to fair condition. County Extension Agents reported an average of 6.1 days suitable for fieldwork. Growers actively harvested corn and cutting silage. In the northern part of the State, producers were harvesting white grape varieties. There were reports of TSWV in peanut fields. Cotton growers were busy spraying fields for insects. Army worms continued to plague hayfields. Other activities included cutting and baling hay, preparing to harvest peanuts, and routine care of livestock and poultry. Crop Progress Table Aug 29, 2004 Corn, Mature 96 Corn, Harvested for Grain 49 Cotton, Bolls Open 30 Peanuts, Dug 2 Sorghum, Harvested for Grain 19 Soybeans, Setting Pods 92 Soybeans, Dropping Leaves 8 Tobacco, Harvested 91 Apples, Harvested 20 Prev Week 92 35 16 0 14 88 5 84 16 Prev Year 94 47 17 1 21 91 6 87 20 5 Year Avg 95 56 32 2 15 85 10 87 18 Crop Condition Table August 29, 2004 Crop Very Poor Corn 2 Cotton 3 Hay 2 Peanuts 2 Sorghum 1 Soybeans 2 Apples 0 Pecans 11 Pasture 2 Poor Fair Good --Percentage-- 10 33 45 13 33 39 10 34 48 9 39 45 18 40 38 10 39 45 11 15 68 23 36 28 9 39 45 Excellent 10 12 6 5 3 4 6 2 5 Pasture Condition Table - District* Level August 29, 2004 Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excellent --Percentage-- Dist 1(NW) 2 10 43 43 2 Dist 2(NC) 2 1 37 59 1 Dist 3(NE) 1 9 18 62 10 Dist 4(WC) 0 4 43 47 6 Dist 5(C) 4 12 44 36 4 Dist 6(EC) 2 18 40 38 2 Dist 7(SW) 2 12 38 46 2 Dist 8(SC) 3 9 40 38 10 Dist 9(SE) 0 1 34 64 1 *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. Soil Moisture Table Aug 29, 2004 Prev Year --Percentages-- Very Short 6 1 Short 30 16 Adequate 62 66 Surplus 2 17 5 Year Avg 17 37 41 5 Soil Moisture Table - District Level August 29, 2004 Very Short Short Adequate --Percentages-- Dist 1(NW) 0 14 66 Dist 2(NC) 4 29 66 Dist 3(NE) 1 8 91 Dist 4(WC) 0 36 64 Dist 5(C) 6 43 51 Dist 6(EC) 15 42 43 Dist 7(SW) 12 36 52 Dist 8(SC) 4 27 67 Dist 9(SE) 0 13 78 Surplus 20 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 Weather Information Table GEORGIA WEATHER SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK ENDING MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY AUGUST 29, 2004 1/ 2004 Air Temperature Precipitation Totals Extreme Weekly Rain 30 60 Soil Location Max Min AvG Weekly Day Day Day Season Temp ALMA 93 70 79 0.00 0 4.17 7.91 26.32 82 ALPHARETT 91 66 75 2.91 5 7.06 13.84 35.15 79 ARLINGTON 94 68 78 0.32 3 1.82 6.57 29.80 85 ATTAPULGUS 93 69 79 0.06 2 5.72 8.57 30.59 85 BLAIRSVILLE 86 61 72 1.56 3 5.16 8.22 32.69 77 BRUNSWICK 93 72 78 3.43 5 8.06 14.91 34.42 81 BYRON 93 67 78 0.03 1 3.65 5.57 23.22 82 CAIRO 94 70 80 0.30 2 4.54 6.17 27.47 83 CALHOUN 91 65 76 1.69 4 6.62 11.99 35.75 80 CAMILLA 94 70 80 0.95 2 4.49 6.81 26.58 84 CORDELE 94 68 79 0.05 2 4.35 8.93 27.80 82 COVINGTON 92 66 77 0.11 2 3.17 6.37 26.88 84 DAHLONEGA 88 64 73 1.20 4 4.12 6.61 30.93 76 DALLAS 89 66 76 0.10 1 2.02 6.66 31.40 80 DAWSON 94 70 80 0.00 0 2.62 5.54 25.43 84 DEARING 94 67 79 0.06 2 1.93 3.50 28.51 81 DEMPSEY 91 66 76 0.13 2 4.51 8.79 31.26 81 DIXIE 92 69 79 0.05 2 5.83 13.37 36.36 86 DUBLIN 93 67 78 0.43 1 4.69 5.66 26.32 85 DUNWOODY 89 67 76 1.79 2 5.28 11.04 34.49 80 EATONTON 93 64 76 0.40 3 1.99 2.84 23.59 84 ELLIJAY 87 63 73 0.84 4 3.98 6.98 32.34 76 FORT VALLEY 93 67 78 0.09 3 2.34 2.93 18.21 85 GAINESVILLE 90 68 76 0.07 3 2.93 5.61 24.26 81 GEORGETOWN 92 68 78 0.17 1 0.73 3.09 23.51 82 GRIFFIN 90 67 77 0.15 2 4.23 7.52 30.06 79 HOMERVILLE 93 68 78 0.70 2 5.62 9.08 30.68 82 JACKSONVILLE 91 67 78 0.00 0 2.81 3.50 25.62 83 JONESBORO 92 67 77 0.69 2 4.67 5.96 24.08 80 LAFAYETTE 89 65 75 0.14 1 2.61 7.47 28.91 77 MIDVILLE 91 68 78 0.00 0 6.05 8.73 32.17 86 NAHUNTA 93 68 78 0.32 3 5.71 10.25 39.01 84 NEWTON 93 69 79 0.14 1 3.97 7.63 29.06 84 PINE MOUNTAIN 92 66 76 2.43 4 4.16 10.30 36.04 78 PLAINS 92 69 78 0.02 2 4.77 8.62 30.05 84 ROME 93 66 77 0.00 0 2.47 7.46 34.02 81 ROOPVILLE 92 64 75 1.74 3 5.83 9.24 29.72 80 SAVANNAH 93 69 77 0.50 4 5.15 9.21 34.67 82 SNEADS 93 70 81 0.02 1 2.68 5.62 29.03 86 STATESBORO 90 69 78 0.21 2 3.78 5.45 21.47 85 TIFTON 93 70 80 0.58 1 1.79 4.08 33.33 80 VALDOSTA 93 71 81 0.55 6 6.19 9.49 27.80 83 VIDALIA 92 69 79 1.11 2 6.69 11.40 30.77 84 WATKINSVILLE 91 65 76 0.03 1 3.46 6.59 27.02 81 WILLIAMSON 91 66 76 0.10 2 2.81 7.10 28.55 81 1/ Weather data supplied by 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, www.georgiaweather.net. NA - not available. District Highlights These comments are written by the Georgia County Extension Agents, and have been complied and edited by the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service. DISTRICT COMMENTS August 29, 2004 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Five+ inches of rain this past week has slowed all field work. Scattered thunderstorms have hindered hay harvest. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Scattered showers brought relief to the eastern part of the county. Conditions remained quite dry. Hay harvest continued. Apple picking increased. Peaches decreased. Routine care of livestock. Harvest of white wine grapes has begun. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST Scattered showers made it impossible to roll quality hay. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Received reports of some spidermits and one field was sprayed for fall armyworms in cotton. Loopers and velvetbean caterpillars have been infesting soybeans. Producers were busy pulling corn. A lot of early cotton has opened up. Dry again! DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL Received some welcome showers! Many parts of the county got around 1 inch of rain this week. It helped to green-up pastures and hayfields to some extent. Still saw armyworms in some hayfields. Thankfully, not a really bad problem with them yet. Corn and grain sorghum harvest has begun. Scattered showers helped on hay fields & pastures in some areas of the county. For the most part hay and silage growth has been delayed due to lack of rain. In some cases only two cuttings of hay will be made. We have not had the rainfall that we anticipated. We need to get some rainfall to alleviate the shortfall in hay production. Some scattered armyworm problems have begun to show up in hay fields. Chinch bugs have caused heavy damage to lawn grass and millet in our area. Scattered afternoon showers. Peanut harvest has begun. Cotton continued to open. Worm pressure increased in soybean fields. Haying continued. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Continued dry with spotty showers. Peanuts dug about 10 days off. Many late/double cropped soybeans have had a tough time. Yields will be off. Rain has helped all crops. Corn harvest well under way. Has started to get dry again. DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST We received 0.23" of rainfall. Peanut maturity checks have started. Foliage feeder insects have increased in peanuts. Dry! DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL White mold and TSWV have taken a toll on some peanut fields and will probably have to be dug early. Late April planted peanuts have begun showing ready to dug at about 120-125 days on Georgia Greens which normally take about 140 days. Early cotton has begun opening up and will be ready to defoliate in about less than two weeks and is ahead of schedule far as maturity. Have been spraying peanuts for disease control and some worms. Have been harrowing up tobacco fields and spreading poultry litter. Have been spraying soybeans for worms and stink bugs. Cutting hay continued. Some fish killed in ponds reported. Still missed rain over large areas of the county. Our county has been hurt by dry conditions. Crop yields will be affected as harvest nears. The impact of dry conditions have begun to show especially in peanuts, cotton, soybeans and dryland corn. Many non-irrigated cotton fields have begun to be defoliated now. Scattered showers have held up cutting and baling hay. TSWV has been worse than normal in peanuts, damage up to 30% in scattered fields. Cotton has begun maturing with falling leaves and opening bolls. Peanuts have been treated for whitemold. Sprayed soybeans for loopers. DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST No comments available. Contact Information David S. Abbe, Director Georgia Agricultural Statistics Phone: 706-546-2236 E-mail: nass-ga@nass.usda.gov Website: http://www.nass.usda.gov/ga