News Stories - Page 2

While drivers spend extra time in the car in search of fuel during the recent gasoline shortage, farmers are dealing with a more long-term shortage — a low supply of hay for their livestock.

Georgia farmers are never surprised to see fall armyworms munching on their precious corn, sorghum and forage hay crops. They just hope for a low number of armyworms. This year’s population of the tiny destroyers, described as an “Armageddon-type outbreak” by University of Georgia entomologist David Buntin, is far from low.

Hay and baleage producers in the Southeast have a chance at winning cash and major equipment prizes in the 2016 Southeastern Hay Contest presented by Massey Ferguson. The Southeastern Hay Contest is held in conjunction with the Sunbelt Ag Expo, the South’s premier outdoor farm show.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension forage specialist Dennis Hancock has organized the annual Georgia Grazing School set for Sept. 20 – 21 at the National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory (NESPAL)building on the UGA campus in Tifton, Georgia.

With water use and rising expenses a concern, forage sorghum is a cheaper, more effective alternative for Georgia cattlemen feeding dairy cows, according to University of Georgia animal and dairy scientist John Bernard.

The University of Georgia faculty and staff at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center in Watkinsville will host the center’s annual corn boil and open house on June 28 from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

While our neighbor to the northeast, South Carolina, was left reeling from October’s floods, parts of Georgia were left with less rain than normal.

Led by increases in forestry and livestock values, Georgia’s agricultural output increased by $484 million in 2014, making agriculture, once again, the largest industry in the state with a value of $14.1 billion. According to the most recent University of Georgia Farmgate Value Report, published earlier this month, the value of Georgia’s livestock and aquaculture industries increased by almost 36 percent from 2013.

Hay can’t be evaluated by touch, smell, color or any other on-the-spot technique. To get a true measure of forage quality, hay has to be tested.

This year, farmers from 13 Southeastern states competed to show off their farm’s best hay or baleage in the 2015 Southeastern Hay Contest.