The USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service released their 2015 Planting Intentions Report this week. There is always room for debate about reliability, and this report certainly has the web buzzing. I don’t have much to add beyond what is in print, but wanted to share the highlights as they might relate to our markets. You …
We are looking forward to a great panel of speakers for our Row Crop Economic Sustainability Workshop on March 17th at 4:00 PM. Agricultural Economists from University of Florida and University of Georgia will discuss important topics such as Crop Enterprise Budgets and Grain Marketing. Because we are looking at negative returns in some cases, we will also …
Continue reading ‘Row Crop Economic Sustainability Workshop, March 17th’ »
In this area of North Florida corn planters are usually rolling by the first week of March. I suspect there may be one or two going already. However, February weather has been a bit unnerving for most as they are ready to get the cropping season underway. I was a bit surprised when I looked at …
The first glyphosate tolerant Palmer amaranth (PA) populations were found in Georgia in 2005. This area of North Florida has largely escaped from development of these populations over the past decade. In this area; except for glyphosate resistant corn which is nearly always sprayed with multiple modes of action to control broadleaf weeds, there was little use of …
Continue reading ‘Winning the Battle…..But, Losing the War’ »
Farmers in North Florida have been voting with their pocketbook the last several years. The region was covered up in corn in 2013 with virtually every irrigated acre producing corn as a result of the Midwest drought of 2012. The summer of 2012 brought a large expansion in peanut acreage following a drought shortened southeastern …
Conservation Farmers in North Central Florida are getting their corn crops planted and applying burndown herbicides. They know a thick mulch layer will keep soil temperatures lower and will conserve soil moisture from their non-irrigated fields until peanut and cotton planters roll in a few weeks. We have a wide variety of cover crops and …
Continue reading ‘Conservation Farmers and Soil Health Meeting (Video)’ »
I was caught off guard this week when a reporter from WCJB-TV, Lauren Lettelier, contacted me about the increase in cotton farming in our region. Her interests included a particular emphasis on profitability. From a historical context, I am a firm believer that cotton is one of our “leaner” industries. Without a few good years in the …
In my recent Extension Advisory Committee meetings before wrapping up for 2013 one thing that was emphasized was economic sustainability must continue to be a component of UF/IFAS Extension programming. This was following a year where farmers watched corn drop from $7/bushel at planting time to $5 at harvest and cotton fall from 0.95/lb at …
One of our local cooperating farmers has harvested the UF/IFAS On-farm Cotton Variety Trial. This plot has been put in by the Fulford Farm in Monticello, FL for the past two years. The yield data are not calculated completely, but the Fulford’s said the field is averaging at 2.1 bales per acre and “back of …
Many area farmers have told me that they grew cotton previously in 1994 or 1995. I looked back on price charts and see that cotton was $1.10 per pound in the spring of 1995, so it is not tough to figure out that was the year many of these farmers jumped in. However area farmers did …