Tag Archives: Cotton

Bulloch County Farmer Will Anderson’s Story Is One of Endurance, Faith, and Family

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Register, GA |

At first glance, Will Anderson’s farming operation looks like a lot of South Georgia farms. There’s cotton, peanuts, poultry houses, and long hours trying to keep everything moving. But spend a day with him here in Register, and it becomes clear there’s a lot more riding on this farm than just this year’s crop.

“We farm mainly cotton and peanuts, a little bit of corn. We’ve got eight broiler houses with Claxton Poultry. I’m also a quarter owner in Candler Peanut — we buy for Golden Peanut, do processing for them, and sell CPI peanut seed,” said Anderson, a Bulloch County row crop farmer.

RECOGNITION, AND A LITTLE DISCOMFORT

It’s the kind of operation that takes years to build — and recently it’s earned Anderson recognition, including stewardship honors and awards within the peanut industry. But for him, the attention still feels a little uncomfortable.

“We try to take care of the land like we’re supposed to — do soil samples, do a good job raising chickens,” Anderson said. “There have been a lot of good growers, a lot better than me, who’ve gotten that award over the years. It was an honor to get it.”

A FAMILY FARM TESTED EARLY

The humility makes more sense once you understand the road it took to get here. Anderson comes from a multi-generational farm family built through years of hard work — and eventually, hard times. His father returned home after college to farm, but was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a young age. As his health declined, Will found himself stepping into a much bigger role far sooner than expected.

“He started getting sick physically pretty bad when I was probably 18 or 19. You could tell he physically couldn’t do what he needed to do on the farm,” Anderson said. “And during that time — that was in the late nineties — it was a really bad time to farm. Three or four years of consecutive drought and low prices.”

For many operations, that kind of combination is devastating. Low commodity prices, bad weather, and a family health crisis all hitting at once. But somehow, the farm kept going.

“I reckon it goes back to your relationship with the Lord. If he wants you to keep doing it, you’ll keep doing it,” Anderson said. “I’m old enough now to look back and see where times were pretty rough and you came out of it — whether through commodity prices changing or just good yields. Things can change pretty quickly in farming. Cotton was 64 cents three months ago and now it’s 85 cents. That’s how fast it moves. It honestly needs to be about 95 cents, but I think you can look back and see that things can change. Right now though, it’s pretty bad. Our inputs are just too high.”

THE NEXT GENERATION

Even as technology continues to change the way farmers operate, Anderson says the mission really hasn’t changed much at all — keep the farm moving forward, and hopefully create an opportunity for the next generation to do the same.

“My son graduated from high school a couple years ago, and that’s all he’d ever wanted to do. He’s back here now, so hopefully that gives you a little pump — we can keep going and make it work,” Anderson said.

Which may be why, after all the years, all the pressure, and all the uncertainty that comes with farming, the thing Anderson sounds most proud of isn’t an award. It’s endurance.

“There are a lot of good farmers that are not still in business. I’m proud that we’re still moving in the right direction, and I’m proud that my son has been able to come back,” he said. “Whenever you can keep going, it’s a blessing.”

GIVING BACK TO THE INDUSTRY

Beyond his own operation, Anderson serves in a number of agricultural leadership roles across the state, including the Georgia Conservation Tillage Alliance, where he continues to advocate for conservation and research-based farming practices — carrying the same commitment to stewardship that has defined his farm for generations.

By: Ray D’Alessio

Rep. Angie O’Steen Brings a Farmer’s Perspective to Georgia’s State Capitol

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Ambrose, GA |

Agriculture wasn’t always part of Representative Angie O’Steen’s plan. But after marrying into a farming family in South Georgia, she quickly gained a firsthand appreciation for the industry — and the vital role it plays in rural communities across the state.

“I grew up in Jeff Davis County. I’m an only child, and I had never been on a farm before I married Danny,” O’Steen said. “I married Danny, went to nursing school, and started working on our farm — what I considered working, which was hauling tobacco for his daddy. His dad grew vegetables, peanuts, some corn, and tobacco.”

FINDING HER VOICE UNDER THE GOLD DOME

Now serving in the Georgia House of Representatives for District 169, O’Steen says those early experiences on the farm have shaped her perspective as a lawmaker and driven her to be a stronger voice for agriculture in Atlanta.

“I realized really quickly that there were a whole lot of relationships I was not a part of yet. Thankfully, I got placed on the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, Public Health and Rural Development — all of those. I’m a nurse by trade, so I speak those languages,” O’Steen said. “But I realized that agriculture really didn’t have very many advocates in Atlanta.”

RELATIONSHIPS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE

For O’Steen, effective advocacy means building relationships across the board — with colleagues from both parties, and even with the lobbyists who help inform legislation on complex issues.

“You have to make relationships on both sides of the aisle, whether Republican or Democrat. But you also have to make relationships with the lobbyists that are there,” she said. “In my experience, the lobbyists are our best friends, because you can’t be an expert in everything — even in agriculture. There are things going on in the state that I’m not aware of. When bills come up, they are great resources to help educate me and my colleagues on legislation that’s coming up, or even on concerns that may not be a bill yet.”

PROTECTING THE FAMILY FARM

At the heart of O’Steen’s work in the legislature is a clear priority: protecting the family farm. With economic pressures continuing to mount for farmers and producers across the state, she knows the stakes firsthand.

“We’re not growing very much cotton this year because you can’t afford to lose several hundred dollars an acre before you ever even start growing it — you’re losing money before you even get it out of the ground,” O’Steen said. “My priority would be taking care of agriculture and working with my colleagues in the House who speak my language, and figuring out what kind of policy we can create to ensure the future of the farm.”

For a lawmaker who came to farming by way of marriage and a nursing career, Representative O’Steen has become one of agriculture’s most committed voices in the state capitol — and for Georgia’s rural communities, that advocacy couldn’t come at a more critical time.

By: John Holcomb

Early Drought Puts Georgia Farmers in Uncharted Territory

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Madison, GA |

All across the state, dry conditions are raising concerns for farmers and producers. A lack of rainfall and expanding drought are already impacting planting decisions and crop outlooks heading into the season.

For producers like Lee Nunn, the biggest concern isn’t the drought itself — it’s how early it arrived this season.

“In droughts in previous years, none of those years that I can remember off the top of my head could we not get a crop in. We had a drought during the crop year. This year is extremely different to me — being this dry, this early. I’ve never seen it in my years of farming to be stressed about getting the crop in the ground,” said Nunn.

While drought is nothing new for Georgia growers, Nunn says even typically reliable crops are showing signs of stress. His wheat crop — one that has rarely struggled for moisture in a quarter century — is now a cause for concern.

“We’ve never really had a problem in the last twenty-five years of growing wheat of ever having a lack of moisture on a wheat crop. I look back at some rainfall data, and we’re at about fifty percent moisture since the first of last September. We’re down about fifteen inches short in that time frame,” Nunn said.

EQUIPMENT AND COSTS

The lack of moisture isn’t just impacting crop development. Nunn says the soil has become so dry and hardened that his equipment is taking a serious toll, making planting more difficult and costly than usual.

“With the lack of moisture, that subsoil machine almost just can’t go in the ground. It is so hard. The red clay we have in this part of the state comes up like bricks and chunks — super hard and very abrasive,” Nunn said. “I would say we get at least half the life of our tips and our wear points on equipment compared to what we’d get with moisture. And honestly, that’s just an expense we can’t afford to take right now.”

Those added expenses come at a time when farmers are already struggling with high input and operating costs, putting even more pressure on producers heading into planting season.

“With the input costs we have right now at all-time highs — diesel fuel, fertilizer, equipment, equipment parts — just everything is at all-time highs,” Nunn said. “Commodity prices have crept up a little bit lately, and I’m thankful for that. But we’ve got to have a crop to sell this fall. Without adequate soil moisture, we can’t till the crop in, and we can’t plant the crop. If there’s no moisture there, there’s no need planting it.”

WINDOW IS CLOSING

According to Nunn, time and conditions will play a critical role in determining the rest of the season. If things don’t change, there’s a real chance this year’s crop won’t go in the ground at all.

“We have a pretty long window with cotton — at least another month to plant, up until about the first of June in this part of the state,” Nunn said. “We don’t like to plant much past the first week of June, so we do have some time. But the longer you wait, the less yield you have, and the more problems you have with the cotton crop.”

“That’s not to say you can’t make a crop,” he added. “But the chances are a lot less that you’ll make a perfect crop — and we almost need a perfect crop for these type of situations with inputs and pricing.”

As the season progresses, Georgia producers like Nunn will be watching the forecast closely, hoping for the rain that could mean the difference between a challenging year and no crop at all.

By: John Holcomb

Fertilizer Prices Surge as Georgia Row Crop Growers Begin Planting Season

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Tifton, GA |

As planting season gets underway for Georgia’s staple row crops, growers are firing up their fertilization schedules — and facing a costly start to the season. Fertilizer prices have jumped more than twenty percent across the board, with one key nutrient being hit especially hard.

“One of the biggest challenges we have right now is that a lot of fertilizers, especially nitrogen-based fertilizers, come from the Middle East. Because we have the Strait of Hormuz closed, it’s becoming a challenge for growers because not a lot of fertilizers are getting here to the U.S. — and that’s causing prices to surge,” said Doug Amarel, an agronomist with the University of Georgia Extension.

That surge includes a fifty percent jump in nitrogen prices alone, putting cotton growers in a particularly difficult position heading into the season.

A DELICATE BALANCING ACT

“Nitrogen is one of the most important fertilizers, especially if you’re doing cotton. It can account for up to fifteen to twenty percent of production costs, so growers need to find ways to cut costs,” Amarel said. “In years like this, when you have high fertilizer prices, you need to adjust. You need to manage the ways to stay profitable — whether that’s cutting back on some fertilizers, managing different crops, different rotations, or different practices in the field.”

But cutting back too aggressively carries its own risks. Amarel says fertilizer management is one of the most consequential decisions a grower can make.

“The three most important things about growing crops are genetics, the environment — something we cannot control — and management,” he said. “And management, eighty to ninety percent of it, is about nutrient management or fertilizer management in the field. If you apply too much nitrogen and not enough potassium, or too much phosphorus without the right micronutrients, you are hurting your crop. You still need to apply enough to be profitable and to produce your crop.”

START WITH A SOIL TEST

With margins already tight, Amarel says getting the most out of every application will be critical — and that starts well before the first pass across the field.

“The most important thing I’ve been telling growers: soil test. That’s the foundation,” Amarel said. “If you don’t know what’s in your soil, there is no way to manage your fertilizers properly. You don’t know how much nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorus you need to apply. A soil test is the foundation of any nutrient management plan right now.”

DROUGHT ADDS ANOTHER LAYER

All of that planning, however, will ultimately depend on whether the historically dry conditions gripping much of the state finally come to an end. Without adequate moisture, even a well-executed fertilizer plan can fall short.

“It creates another problem, especially for growers doing dryland crops,” Amarel said. “We still need water for the crop to uptake nutrients. If there is no water, the crop cannot uptake nutrients. So you may want to go slower at the beginning of the season and adjust as you go — splitting your applications to improve nutrient use efficiency.”

For Georgia’s row crop producers, the 2026 growing season is shaping up to be a test of both patience and precision — with every input decision carrying more weight than usual.

By: Damon Jones

Field Day Provides Crop, Research Updates

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Tifton, GA |

In Tifton recently, producers got an up close and personal look at the latest cotton and peanut research. It’s an event that’s an important one for producers as they get to see firsthand the important, grower funded work that’s being done that will keep the industry successful for years to come.

“We’re all in need of new information. Certainly in a trying times that we’ve got economically on the farm. We need to know the latest and the greatest, and of course, some of the stuff really won’t be available for commercial production for several years, but it’s good to have an idea of what our researchers are doing. The other side of it is it gives us a firsthand look at what our researchers are doing, the effort, the information and work that they’re putting in to get these improvements in our growing process and it just makes you feel good about how our research dollars are being spent,” says Joe Boddiford, Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

Of course, another important aspect of the event is getting to hear updates from experts on this year’s crop. This year was of course a rough one from the start as producers had a hard time even getting the crop planted, which according to UGA’s Scott Monfort, has now delayed most of this year’s peanut crop.

“Overall this year has progressed to be a pretty decent year. Every year, we have a lot of bumps and bruises to get to where we’re at today. We had a lot of rainfall in May that pushed our planting season back 2 to 3 weeks. So, a lot of our acres were planted last week of May going into June. Then we went from being extremely wet to extremely hot and dry in June. So, we fought some things to get this crop up and going,” says Extension Peanut Agronomist, Scott Montfort.

Since getting it up and going, producers have still had a challenging time, as the weather has caused a number of disease issues for peanut producers.

“Problem we face this year has been tomato spotted wilt virus. It will be a problem every single year, but growers need to look in their fields now. More spotted wilt than you want? What could you have done earlier to do it? Leaf spot diseases are always a problem for Georgia’s peanut farmers, always; but this year they’ve been a little bit slow to develop. I think that that warm, dry weather we had mid-season kind of was a restart button for this disease. Now growers are facing leaf spot diseases. They need to take an opportunity to manage them, but I think it’s been a little slow. The disease that’s been number one issue for us and certainly environmentally driven has been part of that has been white mold. White mold flourishes when we have warm, moist, humid nighttime temperatures. We’ve had that even when we’re not getting rain. If we have heat, if we have warm days, it can be,” says Bob Kemerait, Extension Plant Pathologist.

Monfort says that the rollercoaster of weather has continued to be a trend all throughout the growing season, as even now, dryland peanuts are suffering from the lack of rain. However, he says despite that, the crop could still turn out to be a decent one.

“The dryland crop is struggling. That’s around 49 percent of our crop is dryland. We had a lot more irrigated this time. And so that’s the one that I’m really concerned about as far as how is that going to fare out. I think it’s, it’s a good, maybe slightly above average crop,” says Monfort.

By: John Holcomb

Cotton Producers are Still Hopeful for Strong Yields

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Tifton, GA |

This growing season has certainly been a challenging one for cotton growers here in Georgia, as producers continue to get hit with one challenge after another, time and time again. However, according to Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Specialist, despite those difficulties, the crop still is turning out to be a great one.

“Up until now, the crop looks really good. It seems like we’ve been getting what we need in most places. That June spell might hit a little harder than other some of our earlier planted dry land, really in the middle part of the state probably suffered a little bit more from that dry June than other places, but the crop, I think is looking really good,” says Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Specialist.

Of course, a big concern is the effect of Hurricane Debby, however, according to Hand, though there were some direct losses, the crop faired the storm well as the bolls on the plants hadn’t opened just yet. However, his biggest concern is the fact that some producers are not able to get equipment back into their fields, which will hinder their ability to manage and possibly harvest their crop.

“I think there’s definitely some direct losses, but the thing that concerns me a little bit more are the indirect losses from delays being able to get in the field from, from dirt roads being washed out and stuff like that. We’re definitely going to be delayed getting back in the field. Also, it could take until harvest. The good news is that it wasn’t quite as bad as most people thought, but the bad news is we’re still in August and we got us a long way to go,” says Hand.

Another concern growers are dealing with are pests, specifically boll feeding ones such as stink bugs, that can do a lot of damage this time of year when the plant is most susceptible.

“Stinkbugs are the primary boll feeding bug, but we also need to be aware that there are other bug species that can do similar injury. One that’s kind of we’re seeing a little more frequently for this late in the season is tarnished plant bug and clouded plant bug, but they’ll also feed on these developing bolls. We have a dynamic threshold that when we’re in that third, fourth and fifth week of bloom and a lot of cotton is in that time frame where it’s most susceptible or most sensitive to yield loss from these boll feeding bugs,” says Phillip Roberts, Extension Entomologist.

Roberts says one other pest to be concerned about is the silver leaf white fly, as he says they do well in drought conditions growers here in Georgia saw earlier this summer and need to be dealt with in a timely manner.

“June was a very dry month, and silver leaf white fly really does well during dry conditions. Thankfully, we started receiving rainfall in July, but white fly numbers did kind of get a foot in the door. We do want to remind growers, when you see a few white flies in the field, they should influence every decision you make,” says Roberts.

By: John Holcomb

Significant Rainfall is Impacting Cotton Fields

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Tifton, GA |

This time of year, typically you can find cotton producers in their fields wrapping up the planting of their crop. However, this year, things have looked a little different, as unprecedented rainfall has delayed producers from getting their 2024 crop in the ground.

“We’ve kind of had wet Mays the last two years, which is a little abnormal for us. We’re used to May being one of our drier months and not being able to do a lot of dryland planting and stuff like that, but we’ve had these fronts come through consistently that are keeping us out of the field. So, we’re at the RDC pivot today; a lot of people know where that is here in Tifton, but we were able to get in here the first week of May and plant this, but if we had not done that, then we probably wouldn’t have been able to plant it until now,” says Extension Cotton Agronomist, Camp Hand.

As Hand stated, since that first week of May, producers have not been able to get into their fields to finish planting, as the amount of rain they’ve gotten is unlike anything they’ve seen, which, according to producer, Brian Ponder, just creates more challenges to deal with throughout the season.

“Typically, in our area after about the 25th of May our yields start to decline. So, normally we would like to be through around the 20th through the 25th, but in years past at that point that’s when we see a decline in yields. Now, it’s not every year because every year’s different, and we know the Lord can work things out. We may end up making the best crop we’ve ever made, but typically planting as late as we are, we’re kind of challenged to get the yields that we need,” says Brian Ponder, Owner of Pondagold Farms in Tifton.

According to Hand however, he believes the state as a whole is in a decent spot and says regardless of whether or not the crop is planted on time, a good crop is still possible.

“We’re about where we need to be, but, with that being said, we do have an insurance deadline coming up. Next week is the first week of June, so a lot of folks are worried about getting a crop in. The one thing I’ll say is we can still make really good cotton that’s planted in June. We can get it off to a good start, but we just got to be a little more careful with making sure we don’t delay that crop any and finding any issues associated it with that crop and fixing those,” says Hand.

For Ponder and others like however, the real concern is with the financial issues producers are facing, as he says inputs and other costs have increased, but the price of cotton isn’t much more today than it was four decades ago, which makes it difficult to just breakeven.

“Today we can sell cotton for seventy-six cents a pound. Forty years ago, we were probably seventy-three. We’re basically selling the crop for the same price as we did four decades ago. In that time when I started growing cotton, I was paying twenty-five dollars a bag for cotton seed, now I’m paying 650 dollars. A cotton picker that I started out with, we bought a used cotton picker in 1987, I paid twenty-five thousand dollars for it, and now a new picker today is a million dollars. So that’s the challenges that we’re facing,” says Ponder.

By: John Holcomb

Annual Meeting Prepares Growers for Upcoming Planting Season

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Tifton, GA |

Believe it or not, we are just a few months away from seed going into the ground for cotton growers around state. And with that in mind, many decided to attend to Georgia Cotton Commission Annual Meeting, to prepare themselves for the coming season.

“Whether it’s insects, diseases, varieties, you name it, there are people here, to visit with and learn from and learn from each other. These meetings like this, extension specialists like myself, this is where we really learn what the needs are across our great state,” says Phillip Roberts, Extension Entomologist with UGA.

While some pests like aphid and thrips are a yearly nuisance to these growers, there are always new ones to be on the lookout for when scouting your fields.

“One of the main topics we’re hitting at our local production meetings is tarnished plant bug. That’s a pest that’s really increased just in recent years. So, it’s still new to some of our growers. So, we need to make sure growers understand that they are potential pest and we just need to scout for them and if we have them, it needs to be addressed,” says Roberts.

Protecting the crop against diseases such as foliar leaf spot and boll rot are equally as important to maintaining yields. And the easiest way to do that is have a proactive approach.

“In my world of plant pathology and nematology, perhaps, the most important thing is to recognize that some of the most important things a grower can do happens before they can close the furrow, whether it’s fighting nematodes or fighting bacterial blight or fighting fusarium wilt or fighting seedling disease; they have to do it before the furrow’s closed. Your management options are very limited once you close the furrow,” says Bob Kemerait, Plant Pathologist with UGA.

This message is more important than ever this year with a lower commodity price being projected to go along with record high input costs.

“Margins are going to be tight and I think at the end of the day, it’s all about making every input pay. Entomology; it’s a little easier than some other things. We can scout and if we exceed threshold, yes, it is a good investment to protect that cotton from insects, but I think at the end of the day, it’s trying to reduce that cost of production per pound of lint. We can reduce input costs, but we have to maintain yields,” says Roberts.

And that’s the goal for everyone on the UGA Cotton Team, as they strive to meet all current and future challenges.

“We here, in University of Georgia extension, we pride ourselves on coming up with research based, nonbiased information. Cotton growers in Georgia are a robust group. They’ve been through storms before. Admittedly, this storm is kind of tough recognizing that cotton prices may not be where they want them to be, but they’re resilient and they recognize that a lot of the profit comes from investing in research and adopting research to improve production through profitability,” says Kemerait.

By: Damon Jones

Summer Storms Damage Southwest Georgia Cotton Crop

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Doerun, GA

Things can certainly happen in a blink of an eye, and cotton producers here in Southwest Georgia know that all too well after recent storms brought high winds, hail, pouring rains, and even tornadoes that hammered their crop. It’s something Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Agronomist with the University of Georgia, says is a bad situation as seedling cotton is a vulnerable crop, but believes there’s still hope.

“Cotton right now is anywhere from first bloom if you planted early to just coming out of the ground, so there’s a lot of variability in our crop and the impacts on the crop, kind of depend on what stage it’s in,” says Hand. “The field that we’re at today, it’s probably the second week of squaring, which is where I would imagine most of our crop is right now, and this field looks better than it did a few days ago. It’s starting to come out of it a little bit, the terminals were broken out of this cotton, which means it’s kind of got to divert resources back to vegetative growth to compensate for that loss, but that’s kind of the situation we’re in right now is waiting on sunshine.”

However, according to Hand, at this point, it’s just a waiting game, as they won’t know the full scope of the damage for a while.

“It’s hard to tell what the losses are going to be right now,” says Hand. “I will say that depending on the stage of crop could change things. Seedling cotton is a little more vulnerable to something like this and if the hail was a little bit worse in seedling cotton fields and you see some sticks or like it broke off everything and coddle leaves were gone, then that plant is dead, but these right here, you still see green leaves, it’s still, you know, photosynthesizing, still working, so this crop definitely has got a chance and a lot of potential, and of course, whether it’s seedling and stuff like that, it kind of changes what we think about what we need to do going forward, but right now, we’re just kind of in a tough spot.”

Tough spot indeed, as Hand says it’s too late to replant, and says that the only thing producers can really do is wait on sunshine and warmer weather.

“The thing about it is, if you’ve got seedling cotton that was killed pretty much, today is what, June twentieth I believe it is, so I wouldn’t replant today and you can’t, because it’s too wet. So either you’ve got to stick with what you’ve got, or we’ve got to change course, because it’s a little too late to replant cotton. In terms of trying to bring it out of this, what we really need is sunshine and ninety degree days and that’s not really in the forecast, but on a day like today, this is exactly what the crop needs. There’s nothing you can spray, nothing really you can do to kind of hasten the crop coming out of this,” says Hand.

By: John Holcomb

Annual Cotton Commission Meeting Updates Producers on Economic Outlook

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Tifton, GA

At the University of Georgia’s Tifton Conference Center, cotton producers, industry professionals, and experts recently gathered for their annual meeting – a time for producers to fellowship, get updates on the industry, and hear from experts before the 2023 season gets underway.

“It’s just an event to try and gather as many cotton producers from across the state as humanly possible in one place at one time to discuss what’s going on in the cotton industry for 2023 and beyond, as well as a time together to fellowship, meet with our extension specialists and extension agents to learn about new farming techniques and practices and technologies, as we make plans for 2023,” says Taylor Sills, Executive Director of the Georgia Cotton Commission. “We’re good at growing cotton here in Georgia, so they’re looking to find ways to pinch a penny without cutting a corner to continue to produce that sustainable, high quality crop as we move into the next year and beyond.”

Perhaps the most anticipated part of the meeting each year are the cotton production workshops where growers can hear from experts like Camp Hand, Extension Cotton Specialist with UGA, who spoke to producers about the upcoming year. Hand says growers need to be making the most of every dollar as input costs are still high and the price of cotton is down at least forty cents from where it was last year.

“Even though inputs were high, cotton prices were high,” says Hand. “Almost a year ago, the contract price of cotton was a dollar and thirty cents, which is really good. I mean it’s been a long time since it was over a dollar, but now we’re looking down the barrel of a situation where the contract price for December is about eighty-five, ninety cents maybe and input prices hadn’t gone down that much, and so margins are going to be a little thinner for our guys.”

According to Amanda Smith, a Senior Public Service Associate with UGA, one big concern for producers this year is the drastic increase in interest rates – an issue that Smith says could double interest expenses for producers.

“Last year, interest rates may have been around four, four and a half percent for some producers and this year, it may be between seven and nine percent, and so, their interest expense has increased significantly from last year, and so maybe they had interest expense of fifty thousand dollars on an operating note last year, this year, it could potentially be one hundred thousand dollars and that is dramatic thinking that they haven’t increased their operation size or their not farming more acres; it’s the same size of acres that they’re farming but a much bigger expense because of interest alone,” says Smith.

It’s because of that reason, Smith says growers, more importantly than ever before, need to know their cost of production for the year so they can make decisions that will best keep them financially sound.

“More important than ever is to know cost of production, and when producers know their cost of production, then they can have an idea of what their break-even price is, and so, if they know their break-even price and they can potentially market it above that break-even price, they know they’re covering their costs and gonna make some positive margin,” says Smith.

By: John Holcomb