By Clint Thompson
Jeffrey Dorfman, the state fiscal economist for Georgia and a professor at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), will serve as the keynote speaker for four of the five locations during the 2020 Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series set for Jan. 21 through Jan. 31.
Dorfman will speak in Macon, Lyons, Bainbridge and Tifton, Georgia. Todd Southerland, a senior vice president and food and agribusiness industry manager at SunTrust Bank, will be the keynote speaker and provide a more in-depth poultry outlook in Gainesville, Georgia.
The meetings allow UGA agricultural economists to speak with Georgia farmers, lenders and agribusiness leaders and provide an assessment of the economic outlook for Georgia’s No. 1 industry, agriculture.
Economists from the CAES Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics will forecast the 2020 growing season for Georgia producers with an emphasis on Georgia’s major commodities, such as cotton, peanuts and corn. Adam Rabinowitz, an agricultural economist in the CAES Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, will also be a guest speaker. While predicting markets and providing an accurate account of the future is not an exact science, Rabinowitz said he and other economists will provide information that will position stakeholders statewide to make the best possible decisions.
“We are in a period of great uncertainty in agriculture, with lasting depressed commodity prices, ongoing trade disputes and a continued recovery from natural disasters,” Rabinowitz said. “As a result of these challenges, it is of great importance that agricultural producers and agribusinesses plan for the upcoming growing season.”
The Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series is presented annually by UGA CAES.
For more information on the 2020 Georgia Ag Forecast series, click here. To register for the 2020 Georgia Ag Forecast series, click here.