United States Congressman Ted Yoho recently convened a town hall style forum with North Florida farmers and agribusinesses to discuss the recently passed Farm Bill. The meeting was a result of many area stakeholders contacting the Congressman to discuss the ramifications of the new law on their livelihood. The concerns of these farmers are basically two-fold. …
See Video Here: Rye Silage Harvest on YouTube Area farmers are beginning to harvest small grains for silage in North Florida. One of our Columbia County farmers recently had a custom harvester in to mow, fluff, rake, chop, and bag a rye crop which will be fed to dairy and beef cows in the area. While rye is not …
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I continue to see and hear problems from farmers who are growing Oats this winter. Oats are the most susceptible to cold injury of the small grains we grow in the area and a series of nights with temperatures below freezing are have showed the results. The low temperature of 22 F on January 7th is …
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 …
Most of our local farmers are getting back to the business of planning their crop rotations and budgeting for 2014. We are starting to hear chatter about the Peanut Market and contracting opportunities. This is an important time for farmer planning so they have as much information available as possible. Mr. Jim Moore of JRJ …
The Georgia Corn Short Course will be held January 21, 2014 in Tifton Georgia with an 8:15 registration. There will be a broad range of topics including Entomology, Pathology, Weed Science, Fertility, Irrigation, and Economics. The Agenda is attached at the following link: 2014 Corn Short Course Agenda
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 …
We have all talked about how wet it was this year, and the incessant rainfall of the summer. In many ways it seems that we grew attached with the past few dry years, installing irrigation systems and assuming drier conditions are the “new way of life.” I moved to North Florida in 2006, so I …
Dr. Ann Blount, Professor of Forage Breeding and Genetics provided the following very important update for winter forage producers. We have a significant outbreak of Crown Rust on Oats state-wide in Florida. Last year, this new strain infected and killed most of our research oats at Quincy and Marianna. We have a new oat that we …
Here at the Extension Office we often have farmers bringing in their locally grown produce to share and offer thanks for assistance through the season. This mostly occurs in the spring with the first harvest of squash, tomatoes, peppers, and other fresh vegetables. I was delighted to see a rarity in our area this week …