Tag Archives: UGA Extension

UGA Economist Explains Why Beef Prices Are High — and Why New Imports Are Worrying Georgia Cattle Producers

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Athens, GA |

The price of beef at the grocery store has been a headline for months — and while consumers are feeling it in their wallets, the story behind those prices runs much deeper than simple supply and demand. It starts with the cattle cycle, and a combination of economic and environmental pressures that have been building for years.

“Usually, we follow the cattle cycle about every ten to fourteen years. We hit periods where we have low profitability, and in that situation, producers look to try to increase their revenues — and by doing so, they’re liquidating some of their herd,” said Will Secor, Extension Livestock Economist with the University of Georgia. “We’ve also seen significant drought throughout much of the U.S., particularly in the Central Plains, and the Southeast has certainly had its own drought over the past number of years. As we don’t have those forage resources available, we reduce the number of cattle. Those different combinations are creating a situation where we have fewer head of cattle.”

HIGH PRICES, LONG OVERDUE

Fewer cattle means tighter supply — and tighter supply has pushed beef prices higher. But Secor says it isn’t just a supply story. Consumer demand has been equally powerful in driving what people pay at the meat counter. For cattle producers, those higher prices have been a long-awaited reward — the payoff after years of drought, low margins, and difficult herd decisions. Many were beginning to reinvest and rebuild.

Then came the announcement of new beef imports — and with it, uncertainty at exactly the wrong point in the cycle.

“If a producer is thinking about where they were last year versus where they are today, they’re probably thinking: the supply fundamentals in the U.S. haven’t changed, but we’ve certainly seen prices start to slide. What’s going on?” Secor said. “Part of it is macroeconomic and policy uncertainty — and that uncertainty plays into the decision process of retention. Uncertainty hurts not necessarily as much today, but when you’re thinking about making plans for the future. That’s going to impact their expansion decisions.”

IMPORTS AREN’T NEW — BUT THE TIMING IS A CONCERN

Beef imports are nothing new to the U.S. market, but Secor says the downstream impact on cattle prices is a legitimate concern for producers who were just beginning to see the rewards of a tightened market.

“We’ve been importing beef for a long time. A lot of times it’s lean beef or beef trimmings, so that’s going to go to things like ground beef — and a lot of times, that ground beef isn’t going directly to U.S. consumers at retail. It might be going through fast food restaurants and other food service locations,” Secor said. “So it isn’t necessarily going to have a huge impact at the retail level, but it could overall from a price-of-beef standpoint.”

For Georgia’s cattle producers, the question now is whether the current moment of uncertainty slows the expansion cycle before it ever really gets started — a familiar frustration for an industry that has grown accustomed to being tested just when things start to look up.

By: John Holcomb

Georgia Pecan Growers Face Relentless Scab Pressure and Helene Recovery at 2026 Fall Field Day

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Leesburg, GA |

The Georgia Pecan Growers Association’s Fall Field Day brought producers and researchers together in Leesburg recently for an up-close look at the challenges and management strategies shaping this year’s crop. For growers who can see the research in person — and then take it home to apply in their own orchards — events like this one carry real weight.

“Field days like this are very important because they separate how you process information from what you may read in a book or see on a screen to being able to see it visually,” said Andrew Sawyer, Southeast Area Pecan Agent with UGA Extension. “When people get out here in the orchard, they’re able to put their eyes on it — and it allows them to process that information differently. For the most part, they always respond positively.”

SCAB PRESSURE HAS BEEN RELENTLESS

There was plenty to see this season. Lenny Wells, Extension Pecan Specialist for the University of Georgia, says heavy summer rainfall has made disease management one of the defining battles of 2026 — particularly in southwest Georgia, where scab pressure has been relentless.

“We’ve had a lot of scab pressure, especially in southwest Georgia. As you get over into East Georgia, it’s been a little drier, so they haven’t had as many of the scab issues we’ve had here,” Wells said. “But anytime we get a lot of rain like we have this summer, it makes controlling scab — which is of course our biggest problem — an even bigger challenge. Frequent rains make it hard to get out in the field to spray, and when you do get out there, a lot of times it may get washed off that afternoon. So it just keeps the scab continuously going.”

MORE RAIN MEANS MORE COST

That disease pressure doesn’t just threaten yield — it hits the bottom line directly, driving up one of the most significant costs pecan growers already face.

“The cost of fungicide and applying those fungicides is one of the biggest costs we have in growing pecans. When it’s raining more often, you have to spray more often — and that drives costs way up,” Wells said. “That’s one reason we recommend trying to plant varieties that have a decent level of scab resistance, so that you don’t have to spray as often.”

HELENE RECOVERY ON TRACK

On top of the scab challenge, many Georgia pecan growers are still working through the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. But Wells says the good news is that the recovery cycle is playing out about as expected — and for growers in East Georgia, this year is bringing some much-needed relief.

“Normally what we see after a hurricane or a storm like Helene is that the year after the storm, the trees have been under a great deal of stress and aren’t really going to put on much of a crop. Then the following year, they’ll put that crop on again — and it’s a pretty decent crop,” Wells said. “That’s kind of where we are in the cycle. This year, the crop in East Georgia and throughout the state looks pretty good. That’s a blessing, certainly for those guys in East Georgia who have lost so much.”

For Georgia’s pecan producers, the field day served as a timely reminder that research, variety selection, and staying connected to the work happening in the orchard are often the difference between a manageable season and a costly one.

By: John Holcomb

Midville Field Day 2026: Cotton and Peanut Experts Break Down a Season of Wild Swings

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Midville, GA |

There was plenty for producers to hear and see at this year’s Midville Field Day — a valuable opportunity for growers across Southeast Georgia to hear directly from experts on everything related to crop production. And with one of the most unpredictable growing seasons in recent memory still unfolding, the timing couldn’t have been better.

“The things going on here are applicable to this area and our growers in this area. This gives them a chance to access whatever work is being done here and see it in real time,” said Anthony Black, Superintendent of the UGA Southeast Research and Education Center. “Everyone knows the kind of economic times we’re in with production agriculture, and I hope there’s something here today that helps them maintain and be sustainable.”

A TALE OF THREE SEASONS FOR COTTON

That economic backdrop has made getting the 2026 season right more critical than ever. For cotton producers, the year has been anything but straightforward — swinging from one extreme to the other before most fields even reached full canopy.

“It’s been a tale of three seasons so far, which is crazy. We started off this spring extremely, extremely dry — we were starting to get concerned we’d struggle to get the crop planted and get a good stand,” said Camp Hand, UGA Extension Cotton Specialist. “Then in May it started raining and really didn’t stop. So we were scared on the front end we wouldn’t get planted because it was so dry — and then it started raining so much that people didn’t really finish planting because it was so wet. It’s been a weird year so far, but overall the cotton looks good. USDA has us at ninety-two percent fair or better right now — but I do think the crop is average.”

PEANUTS IN BETTER SHAPE THAN RECENT YEARS

The story is similar for peanuts — a season of ups and downs — though according to UGA Extension Peanut Agronomist Scott Monfort, 2026 is shaping up better than either of the last two years.

“The last two years we had a severe drought between June and July — four to five weeks without any rain all over the state, plus ninety-four-plus degree temperatures,” Monfort said. “This year we’ve had a couple of dry spells, but for the most part we’ve had rain all over the state. It’s just been spotty. I can take you anywhere in any county in the state and we can probably find very dry peanuts and very good-looking peanuts right next to each other. In situations where we’re a little dry but not overly dry and we’ve got irrigation, a lot of times that’s when we make some of our best yields.”

FOUR WEEKS TO THE FINISH LINE

Still, Monfort says the finish line is in sight — but there’s still significant work ahead to get the peanut crop through to harvest.

“I think we’ll make a good crop. When I say we look pretty good, I mean we’re looking good for a solid average crop — good quality, and I think our state average should come in above the four thousand-pound range,” Monfort said. “We’re still going to have some problems — we always do. But we’ve got a long road in the next four weeks to get to the finish line.”

For Southeast Georgia’s producers, the Midville Field Day served as a timely reminder that even in a challenging year, knowledge and preparation are still among the most powerful tools available — and often the difference between an average crop and a good one.

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

Pecan Growers Gather in Ty Ty for Fall Field Day, Share Updates on Research and Recovery

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Ty Ty, GA |

Pecan growers from across Georgia recently gathered for their annual Fall Field Day, an event designed to foster connection, share research updates, and provide expert insights essential to the future of the state’s pecan industry.

“With the research being done here, they don’t get to see this facility but every three years,” says Mary Bruorton, Executive Director of the Georgia Pecan Growers Association. “So this is a new opportunity for new growers and existing growers to see what research has been done… what new varieties are being worked on, and different disease protection as well.”

Among the speakers was Dr. Lenny Wells, Extension Pecan Specialist with the University of Georgia, who offered a crop update and highlighted one of this year’s biggest challenges: rain.

“With pecans, most of the varieties that we grow… they’re susceptible to a disease called pecan scab,” says Wells. “The more rainfall you get, the more disease pressure there’s going to be. You have to spray more. In years like this one, it rains so often that especially growers with a large acreage, they really can’t get over their acreage before it rains again. It drives up the cost of production considerably.”

For producers already operating on thin margins, those increased costs can be significant—which is why having reliable, science-based guidance is more important than ever.

“In general, farmers tend to focus on production—on how many pounds they make of whatever crop they’re looking at,” Wells explains. “But probably a more important figure to look at is the net return. And that goes back to the cost of production. So we’re always looking for ways that we can cut costs without hurting the yield.”

Despite the rain and the lingering effects of Hurricane Helene from last fall, Wells says the crop has shown resilience. In fact, many trees damaged by the storm unexpectedly produced a crop this year.

“We’ve seen something very surprising,” says Wells. “A lot of the trees that were left actually came back with some crop this year… Normally what we see after these hurricanes is that they completely take that next year off… but this year something was different.”

While it may not be a record-setting harvest, Wells says the fact that growers have a crop at all—especially in previously storm-damaged orchards—is a positive sign moving forward.

By: John Holcomb

Georgia Ag Issues Summit: Lawmakers Tackle Rural Challenges Ahead of 2026 Session

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Perry, GA |

As Georgia lawmakers gear up for the 2026 legislative session, agriculture leaders and industry professionals recently gathered in Perry for the annual Joint Agriculture Committee Chairmen Ag Issues Summit. Hosted by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Russ Goodman and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Robert Dickey, the event served as a platform to discuss both ongoing concerns and opportunities within Georgia’s largest industry.

“It’s a joint summit between the House and the Senate,” said Senator Goodman. “Chairman Dickey and I are the co-hosts of it and really just bring in people from across the state that are involved in the agricultural industry or extension, or people that have an interest in the industry, and come together and talk about issues, have guest speakers, and find out what our challenges are, what our opportunities are, things that we’re doing well.”

Goodman emphasized the importance of learning from university and extension professionals, noting the summit is essentially “about all things ag.”

For Representative Dickey, the event also plays a critical role in educating colleagues who may not have direct ties to farming or rural life. He says the summit helps bridge that knowledge gap between ag leaders and state lawmakers.

“Chairman Goodman and I are certainly up to speed on a lot of these issues, but so many colleagues are not,” Dickey explained. “That is the kind of information we need to get out to the rest of our colleagues in the House and Senate and the Governor’s office—what the problems are with agriculture in Georgia, what the challenges are that we need to be working on. And there’s lots of them. Rural Georgia and agriculture are facing a lot of headwinds right now.”

Among those headwinds is economic uncertainty—something Senator Goodman says threatens the future of many family farms. He believes public policy needs to be shaped with generational survival in mind.

“Right now, ag is struggling in a lot of ways with commodity prices,” Goodman said. “We’ve seen cost of input come down, but as you heard Dr. Dorfman say, they quadrupled, and now they’re just double what they were pre-COVID. Moving forward, it’s just going to continue to be about making sure we’re implementing public policy that hopefully enables the next generation to continue to farm.”

That message was echoed by Dickey, who says when agriculture suffers, the entire rural community feels the impact.

“Our rural communities are really suffering,” he said. “High cost inputs for farmers, low crop prices—a lot we can’t do on a state level. But we’ve got to support those communities, those rural ag communities, to have the infrastructure, to have the diversity that those communities really need. Agriculture is the largest industry in those counties. When ag constricts, it really puts a burden on our school systems, our roads, and those types of things.”

By: John Holcomb

Georgia’s Cotton & Peanut Crops: What Growers Are Seeing This Season | Midville Field Day 2025

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Midville, GA |

Despite a rocky start to the growing season, Georgia’s cotton and peanut crops are showing promise as the state’s farmers gear up for harvest. At this year’s Midville Field Day, growers gathered to get the latest updates from experts across the University of Georgia’s Extension system—including insight into crop conditions, production challenges, and what lies ahead for 2025.

According to Camp Hand, UGA Extension Cotton Specialist, recent rainfall across the state was a timely blessing for cotton fields that were beginning to show signs of stress.

“Today’s August sixth. The last two days, we’ve gotten rain across the state, which was much needed,” said Hand. “We were kind of getting to a point where it was getting a little iffy in terms of what the crop was doing. It was getting really dry out there.”

Hand said the precipitation will help dryland crops bounce back and assist with irrigation recovery, putting growers in a stronger position heading into late summer.

“Of course, there’s going to be a little bit of fruit shed and things like that associated with overcast weather,” he added. “But overall, I think we’ve still got really good potential in our crop.”

However, good crop potential doesn’t always translate into good profits. With cotton prices currently sitting under seventy cents per pound, many Georgia farmers have backed away from planting it—opting instead for peanuts. But Hand warns that a shift away from cotton could disrupt the delicate infrastructure balance the state’s ag economy depends on.

“The reduction in cotton acres affects infrastructure. It affects gins, it affects warehouses, it affects people that have equipment,” Hand said. “The reason Georgia agriculture has been so successful—especially with our major row crops—is because cotton and peanuts just work. We can’t have one without the other.”

Fortunately, this year’s peanut crop appears to be holding strong. Scott Monfort, UGA Extension Peanut Agronomist, said producers enjoyed a relatively smooth planting season, with favorable soil moisture and temperatures through much of April and May.

“The crop is looking very well across most of the state,” said Monfort. “We had a little dry spell in May that caused some delays, but overall, we got the majority of our crop planted on time.”

Still, Georgia’s peanuts weren’t entirely spared from Mother Nature’s extremes. A heat wave that rolled through late July into early August placed significant stress on irrigated crops during peak bloom—a critical growth stage that demands consistent moisture.

“We were in ninety-five-plus degree temps with no rainfall, and in some of these pivots, you just can’t keep up at that point,” Monfort explained. “We did go through a stress period, but I think it was early enough that I don’t think it’s going to hurt us.”

Both Hand and Monfort stressed that resilience and adaptability remain the keys to success as producers navigate rising costs, shifting acreage, and unpredictable weather.

By: John Holcomb

Georgia Peanut Farmers Face 2025 Challenges: Weather, Yields & Market Outlook

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Tifton, GA |

With Georgia growing six times more peanuts that any other state in the country, keeping those farmers up to date on the latest research, technology and equipment is vital for the health of the industry as a whole. Events like the Georgia Peanut Farm Show help accomplish this by gathering all those involved under one roof.

“Number one, it’s very good information. It’s a chance for farmers to get together and rub elbows with their neighbors and friends that they may not have seen from people come from all over the state and the Southeast, but you also get to see the latest and greatest in machinery, technology, chemicals, and peanut production practices. We’ve got Scott Monfort is going to lead our production session, and we’ve got a seed session. It helps to just give us an opportunity,” says Joe Boddiford, Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

Even though the number of acres dedicated to peanuts in Georgia remain high, yields did take a major hit in 2024, thanks in large part to the unpredictable climate.

“Weather for the last two years have taken some yield from us. This past year has taken more than it has in a long time. You know, we lost some top end irrigated yields in ’23 of about a thousand pounds. This year, fifteen hundred pounds or better and across the state when you look at the state average, we didn’t move that much in ’23. We were at forty-one hundred and something. This year, we dropped down to thirty-eight fifty, and that’s the lowest we’ve been in twenty years,” says Scott Monfort, Extension Peanut Agronomist.

With that in mind, growers must now walk a fine line in 2025 between cutting costs and maximizing production.

“We know you need to make change. We know you need kind of cut back if you can, but the biggest thing is we know you need to make money. That’s the highest yields possible. And what we’re here trying to get them to understand is that it’s easy to say I’m going to cut this out, this out and this out. And that’s going to save me money, but in retrospect, every time you cut something, it’s going to affect your yield or potentially affect your control of a pest that affects your yield,” says Monfort.

The silver lining created by that drop in numbers is a potential for the prices to remain steady through these uncertain times.

“We did get lucky by not producing as much in the state of Georgia. So, that kind of helped us potentially. I’m not going to say it is, but it potentially did. If we would have yielded forty-one, forty-two hundred pounds, we know where we would be this year. It would be starting way low. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case this year and we can at least keep that price up to where we can at least pay some returns back on our investment,” says Monfort.

As for advice to growers preparing for the new year, Monfort suggests working with your local county extension and sticking with the basics.

“The main thing is don’t forget your base programs. Make sure fertility, fungicides, pest management, lyme, calcium, the things you need to do, let’s make sure we do them and we’ll be okay,” says Monfort.

By: Damon Jones

Equipment Prep Important Before Season Starts

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TIFTON, GA – Let’s face it, there’s not much worse than being in the middle of something and then having to stop and fix your equipment. Believe me, been there, done that. So, in order to try and help not make that happen, I recently traveled down to Tifton to talk with a UGA extension specialist about the importance of getting your planter and irrigation systems prepared for the upcoming season.

Wesley Porter, Extension Precision Ag and Irrigation Specialist with the University of Georgia says, “if we get out there and have a breakdown with this piece of equipment or have issues with this piece of equipment, it’s really going to cripple us moving into the year. So, if we have a bearing go out, we have a seed meter system fail, we notice we have a problem somewhere else in this system, and we’re going to take two or three days to get it fixed or time to parts in, then we got to pull it back to the shop to get it fixed, that’s critical lost time.”

Here in Georgia, time is very important, as windows for planting are sometimes slim with our unpredictable shifts in weather.

“We feel like we have extremely variable weather, very few good days to get planted, so we’re already kind of in a hurry,” says Porter.

For the planter, the things you really want to focus on are the depth and down force settings and also the seed meter performance.

“We want to make sure our seed meters are actually singulating the way they’re actually supposed to, they’re dropping the correct number of seeds, that we’re not pulling too many doubles in there, too many skips or misses in there,” says Porter. “You have to have the proper downforce set to maintain that depth. If we have too light of a downforce, and too hard of a soil type or too dry of a soil type, we’re going to be too shallow of a depth.”

Perhaps the most important thing you want to make sure is running properly is your irrigation system.

Porter says, “It’s very critical from an irrigated standpoint that we have this system up and running to par prior to going out to the field and planting and trying to irrigate the system. If we try to turn on the irrigation system after we’ve got our crop in the ground, and we determine at that point we kind of have a bad failure, we’re going to get behind on our irrigation and could cause major crop issues.”

For those irrigation systems, you mainly want to focus on making sure there are no leaks and that the nozzles are working properly.

“So, a lot of times, we do see a lot of leaks on these systems, whether those leaks are occurring at the boots of the pivots, whether they’re occurring at nozzles, sprinklers that have fallen off, been broken, or busted, etc., that’s a very easy fix. If you see those leaks right now, go ahead and get those fixed, because usually they’ll translate to issues in yield in the field,” says Porter.

This may seem like a lot of extra steps, but it could save you a lot of time and possibly even a good bit of money later on into the season. If you find it difficult to find time to do this before the season starts, doing it after is also a good option.

“You’ll know if you’re having little problems with some of the parts in there; it’s fresh on your mind,” says Porter. “Go ahead and get those replaced at that time, get those serviced, maintenance, whatever else need to be done. Then when we pull it out in the spring time, there’s not as much to do, just some light greasing and stuff like that.”

Some of this can be difficult and maybe even confusing if you’re not familiar with it, but all hope is not lost.

“I would strongly encourage you if you have any questions or you kind of have a second guess about what’s going on with this piece of equipment, contact your local county extension agent and have them kind of do a look over with you and talk to you about checking the components and of course you can always go back to your local dealer that you purchased the equipment from,” says Porter.

For a step by step checklist, click here.

By: John Holcomb