News Stories - Page 143

Lisa Baxter began her job on the UGA Tifton campus on March 1. She will focus her time in south Georgia, while Dennis Hancock serves north Georgia. CAES News
Forage Management
According to Lisa Baxter, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s newest forage agronomist, an unusually wet winter will cause problems with summer forage crop quality in Georgia.
University of Georgia Professors Scott Jackson, Dean Pringle and Manpreet Singh, recently graduated from LEAD21, a leadership-development program designed for land-grant university professionals. Pictured left to right at the graduation ceremony in Alexandria, Virginia, are Susan Sumner, board chair of LEAD21, Joe Broder, coordinator of LEAD21 faculty activities at UGA, Laura Perry Johnson, UGA associate dean of Extension, Jackson, Pringle, Singh and Brian Kowalkowski, LEAD21 program chair. CAES News
LEAD21 Graduates
Three University of Georgia professors were among the 79 individuals who completed the 14th class of the LEAD21 leadership-development program. Scott Jackson, Dean Pringle and Manpreet Singh, all faculty in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, represented UGA in the program, which is designed for land-grant institutions and their strategic partners from across the nation.
Peanuts seedlings part of UGA research in this 2018 photo. Because of the lack of rain over the past couple of weeks, peanut plants are likely to be irrigated this early in the growing season. CAES News
El Nino Impact
Farmers who might face a delayed planting season can thank El Niño for Georgia’s exceedingly wet winter, according to Pam Knox, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agricultural climatologist. Row crop and vegetable producers usually begin planting their crops in late March through May, but excessive rainfall and cloudy conditions in January and February have left many fields soaked and soggy.
Sam Pardue, dean and director, UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. CAES News
National Ag Week Salute
As we celebrate National Agriculture Week 2019, many in the Southeast are still struggling to recover from hurricanes, tornadoes, whitefly outbreaks and record-breaking rainfall. Nature is both the nemesis and nurturer of agriculture - the ultimate “can’t live with it, can’t live without it” dilemma.
Pictured are Brian Hayes, Mitchell County Extension agent and county Extension coordinator; Monica Kilpatrick, state coordinator for Georgia Project WET; Debra Cox, Mitchell County 4-H Extension educator; Jennifer Grogan, retired Mitchell County 4-H agent and county Extension coordinator; and Calvin Perry, UGA C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park superintendent. CAES News
Georgia Project WET
Along with the University of Georgia's C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park, the UGA Cooperative Extension 4-H program in Mitchell County has been named the 2019 Georgia Project WET Organization of the Year for hosting a Georgia 4-H camp designed to teach children the importance of water conservation.
Soil sample bags await processing at the University of Georgia Soil Testing Laboratory in Athens, Ga. CAES News
Spring Soil Testing
This spring, gardeners planning vegetable gardens — or even a major renovation of your ornamental beds — should take the opportunity to test their soil before they put plants in the ground.
Symptoms of Alternaria leaf blight first appear on older leaves as small, dark spots that gradually enlarge with concentric rings. Brassica crops, including broccoli, collard and kale, are all susceptible to this plant disease. CAES News
Alternaria leaf blight
Popular vegetables like broccoli and kale are among the crops that could be in danger from Alternaria leaf blight — a disease that can cause spots on some brassica crops and render them unmarketable — which has developed resistance to a once-dependable fungicide Georgia farmers rely on, according to Bhabesh Dutta, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension plant pathologist.
Eric Yirenkyi Danquah, founder of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), right, maize field with WACCI co-founder Kwame Offei, center, and maize breeder Martin Adjei. CAES News
WACCI
Cassava, taro, cowpea: these are the crops that are going fuel the next phase of the green revolution. Today, African researchers are working to develop improved varieties of traditional African crops to meet local food security challenges.
"Ag Snapshots," a pocket-sized book created by the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, summarizes Georgia’s farm gate values in an easy-to-read format. CAES News
Farm Gate Values
Determining the value of Georgia’s agricultural commodities is on University of Georgia agricultural economist Kent Wolfe’s list of job responsibilities. He does it every year, but it’s not a one-man job. Director of the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Development (CAED), Wolfe gets a lot of help from UGA Cooperative Extension county agents across the state.