Georgia Crop Weather Week Ending Date September 5, 2004 HEAVY RAINS FELL OVER THE STATE Heavy rains and thunderstorms slowed fieldwork activities last [week], according to the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service. Over the weekend, Tropical Storm Frances provided much of the southern parts of Georgia with much needed rainfall. Two to three inches of rain were common throughout the State and some areas received more. Soil moisture conditions improved with the recent rains. Crop conditions continued in mostly good to fair condition. Growers were getting in as much fieldwork activity as possible during the week. Corn and sorghum harvest progressed prior to the wet conditions. Tobacco harvest neared completion. Peanut harvest was underway on a limited scale. Thunderstorms coupled with high winds made fungicide and insecticide application on peanuts and pecans difficult. County Extension Agents reported an average of 5.1 days suitable for fieldwork. In other activities, cattlemen weaned calves, growers were preparing land for planting fall grains, spraying fall vegetables for insects, and harvesting apples and grapes. Crop Progress Table Sep 5, 2004 Corn, Mature 98 Corn, Harvested for Grain 66 Cotton, Bolls Open 51 Cotton, Harvested 0 Peanuts, Dug 5 Peanuts, Combined 2 Rye, Planted 1 Sorghum, Harvested for Grain 27 Soybeans, Setting Pods 98 Soybeans, Dropping Leaves 17 Tobacco, Harvested 98 Apples, Harvested 28 Prev Week 96 49 30 0 2 0 0 19 92 8 91 20 Prev Year 98 63 34 0 3 1 1 30 95 10 94 25 5 Year Avg 98 69 45 3 5 2 1 26 92 15 94 25 Crop Condition Table September 5, 2004 Crop Very Poor Corn 2 Cotton 3 Hay 2 Peanuts 2 Sorghum 0 Soybeans 2 Apples 0 Pecans 8 Pasture 1 Poor Fair Good --Percentage-- 9 36 43 13 32 41 9 35 50 7 34 47 12 38 45 9 40 43 11 16 61 22 36 33 8 37 50 Excellent 10 11 4 10 5 6 12 1 4 Pasture Condition Table - District* Level September 5, 2004 Very Poor Poor Fair Good --Percentage-- Dist 1(NW) 2 10 43 43 Excellent 2 Dist 2(NC) 0 2 39 56 3 Dist 3(NE) 1 7 19 65 8 Dist 4(WC) 0 5 44 45 6 Dist 5(C) 2 10 39 46 3 Dist 6(EC) 3 15 43 38 1 Dist 7(SW) 0 7 32 59 2 Dist 8(SC) 2 9 40 43 6 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 Sep 5, 2004 Prev Year --Percentages-- Very Short 2 0 Short 21 18 Adequate 62 67 Surplus 15 15 5 Year Avg 18 33 43 6 Soil Moisture Table - District Level September 5, 2004 Very Short Short Adequate --Percentages-- Dist 1(NW) 0 21 74 Dist 2(NC) 2 25 65 Dist 3(NE) 0 11 82 Dist 4(WC) 2 21 77 Dist 5(C) 1 20 65 Dist 6(EC) 9 31 49 Dist 7(SW) 2 21 64 Dist 8(SC) 2 24 53 Dist 9(SE) 0 5 51 Surplus 5 8 7 0 14 11 13 21 44 Weather Information Table GEORGIA WEATHER SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK ENDING MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 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 69 78 0.37 4 3.94 6.45 26.69 82 ALPHARETTA 89 64 74 1.03 3 6.41 12.90 35.37 79 ARLINGTON 92 67 77 2.33 5 4.08 8.87 32.12 82 ATTAPULGUS 92 68 78 0.10 3 5.80 8.64 30.67 85 BLAIRSVILLE 86 61 70 1.27 2 5.30 7.94 33.96 77 BRUNSWICK 93 72 80 1.09 4 7.05 14.16 34.97 81 BYRON 92 67 77 0.73 3 3.81 4.94 23.95 82 CAIRO 92 69 79 0.82 4 5.19 6.55 28.12 82 CALHOUN 89 66 74 0.03 2 4.86 9.90 35.77 79 CAMILLA 92 69 79 0.13 2 4.62 6.87 26.71 86 CORDELE 93 68 77 1.73 5 6.02 9.54 29.49 82 COVINGTON 91 66 75 2.86 4 5.54 9.02 29.64 82 DAHLONEGA 87 63 72 1.83 3 4.77 6.90 32.31 76 DALLAS 88 66 74 1.14 4 2.89 6.97 32.44 79 DAWSON 94 68 77 1.37 3 3.93 6.64 26.80 82 DEARING 94 67 77 1.98 3 3.68 4.33 30.49 80 DEMPSEY 89 65 75 0.97 2 4.15 7.25 32.13 80 DIXIE 92 68 78 0.03 2 5.85 12.97 36.38 85 DUBLIN 93 68 78 1.84 3 6.53 7.42 28.16 84 DULUTH 92 64 75 0.17 5 2.12 3.53 24.96 79 DUNWOODY 88 64 74 0.57 3 4.38 11.08 35.00 79 EATONTON 91 65 75 3.02 5 4.92 5.09 26.58 82 ELLIJAY 88 60 71 0.17 3 3.44 6.32 32.49 76 FORT VALLEY 91 67 77 0.92 4 3.18 3.58 19.07 82 GAINESVILLE 89 66 74 3.20 3 4.89 7.29 27.44 80 GEORGETOWN 92 67 76 1.49 4 2.22 4.39 25.00 80 GRIFFIN 89 65 75 0.83 4 3.80 7.55 30.81 79 HOMERVILLE 94 67 77 1.99 5 7.45 10.63 32.51 82 JACKSONVILLE 92 67 77 1.01 4 3.82 4.40 26.63 82 JONESBORO 89 67 76 0.99 3 4.88 6.40 24.65 80 LAFAYETTE 89 65 73 0.53 2 2.70 5.63 29.44 77 MIDVILLE 92 69 77 2.08 4 8.05 10.75 34.25 84 NAHUNTA 93 68 78 2.06 5 6.62 12.13 41.07 83 NEWTON 92 69 78 0.18 3 3.98 7.10 29.24 84 PINE MOUNTAIN 88 65 75 1.06 5 5.22 9.29 37.10 79 PLAINS 92 67 76 0.39 3 5.16 7.08 30.44 82 ROME 90 65 75 0.00 0 1.96 5.27 34.02 81 ROOPVILLE 91 64 74 0.27 3 5.99 8.95 29.99 80 SAVANNAH 93 66 76 1.44 4 5.42 9.03 36.11 81 SNEADS 92 72 80 0.05 2 2.57 4.77 29.08 85 STATESBORO 93 67 78 0.35 2 4.02 5.73 21.82 86 TIFTON 93 70 79 0.94 4 2.15 3.68 33.69 80 VALDOSTA 93 70 80 0.93 7 6.61 8.99 28.39 82 VIDALIA 92 69 78 1.62 3 8.00 11.72 32.39 84 WATKINSVILLE 90 64 75 1.14 4 4.58 6.72 28.16 79 WILLIAMSON 89 65 75 0.18 3 2.88 6.71 28.65 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 September 5, 2004 DISTRICT 1 - NORTHWEST Weaned calves. Finished watermelon harvest, hay harvest, and clipped pastures. DISTRICT 2 - NORTH CENTRAL Heavy rains fell in most of the county this week, anywhere from 2-4 inches. Hay cutting and baling was in process and some losses due to wet weather are expected. Peach harvest continued (maybe 3 more weeks) and apple harvest is in full swing. Grape harvest continued this week, but slowed by thunderstorms. A lot of damp weather and hay that needed cutting, difficult harvest weather. DISTRICT 3 - NORTHEAST Rain still made hay harvesting difficult to impossible. Scattered showers throughout the week. More expected from hurricane Frances. DISTRICT 4 - WEST CENTRAL Started digging peanuts. A lot of cotton has opened. Waiting to see what the storm does. Scattered rains relieved drought stress. Heavy showers, 3+ inches in parts of the county, little to none in the rest. Rain from Frances would be welcome for soybean, pasture and hay improvement but not at the expense of damage to life, property and south Georgia crops. Millet harvest, rather substantial crop for this county in the process of wrapping up. Farmers are planning small grain and winter grazing establishment; getting last cuttings of Bermuda grass hay. DISTRICT 5 - CENTRAL Lot's of rain and more to come! Most areas of the county had 3+ inches of rain this week. Rains slowed corn, grain sorghum harvest, and hay harvest. Farmers getting ready to start preparing land for fall planting of small grains and also getting ready for planting winter grazing. Crop conditions remained much the same. The rain showers that we have had were scattered and did not bring much relief to crops. The amount of rain in most cases was not enough to help. These showers have kept hay from being harvested. We have gotten quite a bit of rainfall lately in terms of scattered showers. We are expecting to get rainfall from hurricane Frances. May spur a late season growth in pasture grasses allowing our farmers to get a least one more big cutting. Hay being cut and harvested. Cotton defoliation began. Corn harvest continued. Hurricane Frances has brought 4 inches or more of rain to county (Tuesday AM). Crop damage unknown at this time. Heavy rains have stopped field work. DISTRICT 6 - EAST CENTRAL Spot showers helped soybeans & peanuts. Cotton & peanut harvest will begin soon. Very wet. Will not be back in the field for several days. DISTRICT 7 - SOUTHWEST Corn harvest and peanut digging progressed rapidly the past week. Anticipate heavy rain and possibly high wind conditions from approaching hurricane Frances. We received 2.58" of rainfall. Peanuts are three to four weeks before harvest. TSWV light to moderate in peanut fields. Increased foliage feeders in peanuts and soybeans. Some fields required insecticide applications. Scattered rains during the week relieved some drought stress. DISTRICT 8 - SOUTH CENTRAL Everyone is worried about the storm. Picked corn, dug and harvested peanuts that were close and on wet soil anticipating rainfall. Will begin defoliating cotton after the storm passes. Baled hay. Sprayed peanuts with fungicides and some fields need insecticide. About finished with tobacco. Reports were that we have a short crop of tobacco. Most will not make their pounds. Recent rain should help later planted crops to some extent. Some rain in the county this week - still less than needed. Appeared that more is on the way with hurricane Frances. Plenty of cotton defoliated now and farmers are trying to get it out of the field ahead of the hurricane. Many cotton fields ready to defoliate, but farmers holding up ahead of the hurricane. Corn harvest speeding along, too. Tobacco harvest almost complete. Some earlier planted peanuts have been dug. Starting to see the impact of the dry and hot July on many peanut maturity samples. Some coppering up on peanut kernels and a large gap between mature peanuts and very young limb crop. Spider mites scattered across the county. Many peanut fields ahead of last year in maturity. Hurricane Frances dropped 5 to 6 inches or rain in the county. Wind has damaged pecan trees and broke many limbs. Lots of nuts were also blown out of the trees. Rain and wind put a lot of open cotton on the ground. Electricity has been off for two days in most parts of the county. Tobacco producers still curing tobacco will lose that portion of their crop. Tobacco will rot in barns without power. Wet soils will rot mature peanuts that need to be dug for harvest. Lots of rain. Cotton blown out on the ground. Peanuts need digging, could have heavy yield losses. DISTRICT 9 - SOUTHEAST Seven-eight inches of rain and wind damage. Rain heavy started Saturday and Sunday. Hurricane Frances has dumped 8-12 inches of rain in the past few days. Soils are waterlogged, crops have areas of lodging, and some drowning is occurring. Preliminary estimates of yield reductions are at 50% and will probably rise as the rain continues. 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