Tag Archives: Tifton

UGA Expert Warns Georgia Cattle Producers: Drought Is Threatening Herd Nutrition This Calving Season

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Tifton, GA |

Over the course of several months, much of Georgia has been gripped by drought conditions that have left pastures stressed and hay stocks stretched thin. Now, heading into the heat of summer, that pressure is landing squarely on the shoulders of cattle producers. According to experts, the concern isn’t just the drought itself — it’s the timing.

“If we don’t have rain, we won’t have grass. If we don’t have grass — the main source of feed for cows — it’s not there. So we have to look for other things to supplement or feed the cows,” said Pedro Carvalho, Beef Cattle Specialist with the University of Georgia. “We need to be watching not only the amount but also the quality. If you don’t have rain, the first thing that happens is we won’t have grass — and after that, the grass that is there is going to get worse. So we need to look for strategies and opportunities to feed hay, to feed byproducts.”

THE WORST TIME FOR A FEED SHORTAGE

For many producers, spring calving is either underway or just wrapping up — making this one of the most nutritionally demanding stretches of the year. Carvalho says the drought cut into forage quality and availability at exactly the wrong time, and if producers aren’t careful, the consequences can carry over well into next year.

“What we want is to have that cow pregnant again — to produce a calf every year. In order to do that, we have to make sure those cows have enough nutrients to not only produce milk for the calf they just had, but also maintain good body condition and enough weight to rebreed, get pregnant, and produce another calf next year,” Carvalho said.

TWO THINGS EVERY PRODUCER SHOULD DO NOW

Carvalho says every cattle producer should be doing two things right now: assessing the physical condition of their cattle, and taking stock of what feed and forage they have available — and more importantly, its quality.

“Assess the body condition of your cows during calving, because that’s one of the most important times to do that — and it’s going to determine the success of getting them pregnant again,” Carvalho said. “The other thing is to test what you have available to feed. Not just how much, but what do you have? Test your forage, test your feed, test your byproducts before you feed them to the cows.”

DON’T OVERLOOK WATER QUALITY

Beyond forage, Carvalho says producers should also be keeping a close eye on water sources. Even as some drought conditions have eased with recent rainfall, water quality remains a concern that can easily be overlooked.

“Right now, a lot of cows may have only a pond as their only source of water. Are we checking that as well — and the quality of it?” Carvalho said. “As ponds get shallow, the water is going to get dirtier and dirtier, and the quality is not the same. We need to make sure we are giving the cows enough water, and good quality water.”

For producers looking for additional guidance, Carvalho points to the UGA Beef Team’s online resources at beef.caes.uga.edu, where a range of tools and recommendations are available to help cattle producers navigate drought conditions and nutritional management through the summer months.

By: John Holcomb

UGA Hosts Inaugural Southeastern Specialty Crop Technology Conference in Tifton

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Tifton, GA |

From drones spraying crops to robots scouting fields, technology has become a constant presence in Georgia’s number one industry. To help growers make sense of what’s available — and what actually works — the University of Georgia recently hosted the inaugural Southeastern Specialty Crop Technology Conference, giving attendees a firsthand look at the latest research and development shaping the future of agriculture.

“The reason behind the conference is to bring growers, academia, students, and the industry together and see how we can bring these technologies to the Southeast — and how they can actually help growers be more efficient, more sustainable, and more economically successful,” said Luan Oliveira, Precision Agriculture Specialist with UGA.

A CROSSROADS FOR AGRICULTURE

The timing of the conference couldn’t be more relevant. Producers across the region are navigating record-high input costs while working with an ever-shrinking amount of available farmland — a combination that makes efficiency not just beneficial, but essential.

“Agriculture is at a real crossroads across the country, but particularly here in the southern United States. We have got to come up with ways to more effectively produce the food and fiber to feed a growing world,” said Dr. Michael Toews, Associate Dean for Extension at UGA. “This is the opportunity for us to introduce some of those technologies to our growers that will adopt them and allow us to get over that hurdle — and mind you, that’s on less and less land each year. So we have to get more and more efficient, as well as meet that growing population. It’s critically important that we continue this march forward.”

DATA BEFORE THE DECISION

That march forward does come with a higher startup cost — which is exactly why events like this one matter. Producers can evaluate the latest data before committing to new technology, weighing both performance and return on investment.

“Agriculture is a highly scientific field, and it is critically important that we look at all these new technologies — not just from the perspective of how well they work, but the scalability, so that we can use them to feed a growing country,” Toews said.

Oliveira echoed that sentiment, noting that ROI remains one of the most pressing questions for growers considering adoption. “How reliable is it? What is the return on investment? When is the ROI? Is there an ROI? How much is the return on a machine like that?” he said.

EFFICIENCY THAT ADDS UP

For at least one technology on display, the numbers are starting to make a compelling case. Field robots like the Leaf Deck may move slowly — topping out at one to two miles per hour — but the savings they generate in chemicals, labor, and fertilizer tell a different story.

“What we’re talking about here is truly efficient — on chemical savings, on labor savings, on fertilizer savings. That’s the efficiency we’re talking about,” Oliveira said.

THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE

For UGA’s agricultural leaders, the conference also served as a reminder of just how far the industry has come — and how central technology has become to staying competitive.

“Agriculture and technology are almost synonymous. You have to be invested in technology in order to stay in business,” Toews said. “First and foremost, farmers are businessmen. In order to stay productive, you have to constantly be looking at what the next attribute is going to be that will allow your farm to continue to produce food and fiber for a growing world. Agriculture today is about sensors, controls, and satellites — we have some of the most cutting-edge approaches going on right now.”

For Georgia’s growers, the message from Tifton was clear: the technology is here, the data is growing, and the farms that embrace it will be the ones best positioned to thrive in the years ahead.

By: Damon Jones

Georgia’s Citrus Industry is Flourishing Despite Challenges

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Tifton, GA |

In Tifton recently, citrus growers gathered for their annual conference; a time of fellowship and education, as growers and experts work to lay the groundwork that will help keep the industry a thriving one in the state for years to come.

“It’s our 7th conference, and we have speakers from California, Florida, of course, Georgia coming to talk about the future of the citrus industry in Georgia. Previously, during our conferences, we’ve talked about growing the industry and we’ve kind of surpassed that mark. We know we’re growing and we continue to grow. So, now we’re just looking to the future about what we can do about diseases and the prevention of the spread of diseases and pests and so forth. So, we’re kind of laying the groundwork for what we need to do next,” says Lindy Savelle, President of the Georgia Citrus Association.

In the last several years, the state’s citrus industry has seen a huge interest and growth. Today, Savelle says growth has slowed a bit, but says the industry is continuing to flourish with new varieties starting to be grown.

“Georgia, primarily when we first began this industry in 2013, 14, 15, was primarily Satsumas, and what we realized is that we were saturating with a two-month window of citrus in Georgia, and we needed to flatten that curve out and plant something that comes in earlier or something that would come in later. That’s what we’re seeing. We’re seeing now that there’s about 65, 67 percent satsumas in Georgia, which is good. We’re seeing growth in plantings of tangos, chirinui, grapefruit, and other mandarins as well. So that’s where we’re headed,” says Savelle.

However, with that growth, comes concern, as the threat of disease still looms, such as citrus greening, a disease that has devasted Florida’s citrus industry and is a disease producers in Georgia are desperate to prevent.

“HLB is a billion dollar problem to have. As you’ve seen in Florida, the citrus industry, their production has gone down almost eighty percent. So HLB, it takes a couple of years but it can completely kill the tree as it is a bacterial disease, it clogs up all the plant conduit where the nutrients flow from one part to other so it can really kill the entire tree. Your fruit quality will be deteriorated and the overall plant health will be deteriorated. So, eventually the plant would die in a couple of years. So, it is really serious and as I said, it is transmitted by insects. So, once you have one plant in the grove, if you do not manage the psyllids and also do not uproot that tree, it can eventually take out the entire grove. However many acres you have,” says Apurba Barman, an Entomology Professor at UGA.

By: John Holcomb

Bright Green Vans Bring More Than Just Smiles

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Tifton, GA |

In what’s amounted to a remarkable six-year journey, the unmistakable lime green vans of Peanut Butter and Jesus have become a lifeline for hungry children, hitting the streets of Tifton and the surrounding areas every Saturday with a mission to distribute sandwiches and spread kindness. From humble beginnings of 141 sandwiches, the initiative has flourished, now delivering a staggering 18-hundred sandwiches weekly. Recently, I had the privilege of discussing this incredible charitable effort with CFO Tony McBrayer, shedding light on the unwavering commitment to making a positive impact in the lives of those in need. Here’s our interview:

Ray: “Why Peanut Butter and Jesus? Was there a need down there in Tifton that somebody saw that and said, ‘we need to do this?’ So take us from the beginning.”

Tony: “The way it started in Tifton was back in 2017, the pastor of our church at the time was praying about some kind of community outreach that our little small church could do. He kept driving by these two green vans down in Lakeland, Georgia, had peanut butter and Jesus on them and looked like grass was growing up around them. So, he started asking around, so he got the phone number to the right man, and he, the man explained that they had done the ministry in Lakeland for about six years, and their volunteer base had dried up. So, he said, ‘if you’ll take it and start it in Tifton, we’ll donate the two vans to you.’ So, I always say God kind of dumped it in our laps, so we had to do something, we went with it. We did start here in Tifton in September of 2017, so a little over six years ago. Tift County’s probably six percent poverty with school kids. So we were concerned about kids having something to eat on the weekend and so that’s why we started the ministry here. Just trying to make sure they do have something to eat on the weekend. Just letting them know somebody cares about them and loves them and give them an encouraging word and that type thing every weekend.”

Ray: “What all comes in the bags that you guys prepare and fix for people?”

Tony: “We do put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a snack of some sort, we put a little juice, eight ounce juice in there, and then we always put a Bible track, a little message, something like this in there to tell them about Jesus. We usually do it in cartoon form so the kids would be more likely to read it. That also gives them hope and an inspirational message every weekend. So, sometimes we get other things donated to us. We have distributed blankets, socks, bibles, extra snacks. Sometimes we get big bags of chips and we’ll give them those in addition to the lunch bags we hand out. So, we’ve built quite the rapport with the kids in the neighborhood and the community over six years.”

Ray: “You guys do this every weekend. Sometimes, peoples’ lives are busy, people have busy schedules, but yet you still get people to turn out every single weekend. Does that just kind of blow you away as well?”

Tony: “It does. I mean, fifty two weekends in a year and very few times do we not have some type of group signed up, whether it be other churches. That’s one thing we did very smartly now that we look back, was make it a community ministry from the start. We didn’t try to make it about our church. We don’t make it about any certain denomination. We just, we make it a community ministry and we have churches, small denominations come in to help us. We have civic groups come in, we have school clubs, key clubs, you know, beta clubs, all types of people come in. Sometimes a business would organize their employees because that particular business wants to give back to the community. So we just fill up the calendar every year and give God the praise for that because we could not do it by ourselves. That’s for sure.”

Ray: “For people who want to get involved maybe watching this and they say to themselves, ‘I want to be a part of this,’ how could they do that? Who do they need to contact?”

Tony: “They can contact me and I don’t mind you giving them my number, which is
229-392-7774. I have an email, which is tony@peanutbutterjesus.org, and they can contact me and maybe somebody watching is in another town or another state. We have a little pamphlet about Peanut Butter and Jesus we can send them. We also have a startup guide. A lot of people said, ‘we’d like to start this in our community. How can we do that?’ and we have a startup guide that we can send them. We know of about 35-40 other chapters of Peanut Butter and Jesus that has sprung up across the country. We have three or four out in Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Louisiana, Florida, others here in Georgia. So we would love for it to spread – pun intended, across the United States. It’s my dream that maybe one day even another country will start up a chapter of Peanut Butter and Jesus.”

By: Ray D’Alessio