Citrus News: Production, Political, and Other News Items
In this post, citrus folks can find several features addressing several different topics. Among them, in this first report, grower Mark Wheeler of Wheeler Farms at Lake Placid talks about production matters and what some growers may consider with respect to the crop forecast and seasonal market expectations. We spoke to Wheeler shortly after the crop forecast was released earlier this month.
In this next report, info on an upcoming meeting of a new Long Range Planning Council that’s been set up through the Citrus Commission, and AgNet’s Ernie Neff has a preview of the upcoming November issue of Citrus Industry Magazine.
For these next two reports, Florida Senator J D Alexander discusses several issues important to the citrus industry in state political scene this season, including the status of the Sunset Review process of the Florida Dept of Citrus.
In report number five for this citrus news post, some pointed advice from one citrus grower who has been a leader in helping the industry deal with citrus greening disease and controls for the citrus psyllid. Jim Snively’s comments are from an interview we did with him at a grower meeting in recent weeks.
And in these final two reports in this post, FFVA researcher of the year Ron Muraro from UF’s Citrus Research and Education Center at Lake Alfred discusses fertilizer costs and some considerations for growers who may be looking for ways to mitigate the high cost of fertilization for their citrus groves these days.
Recent discussions among industry and grower leaders trying to move forward to solve the so-called “free-rider” issue continue to bring new options to the table. In this report, Florida Citrus Commission Chairman Ben Albritton Jr discusses the main options on the table right now and in his words the different angles of each to consider. Albritton says it is growing closer to a time when the talks need to end and decisions need to be made.
In these two headlines with citrus news, you’ll hear more on
In this first report posted herein, comments from central Florida Congressman Adam Putnam about the need for orange juice “brands” to do more to help move tremendous supplies in the orange juice pipeline right now, including putting more efforts into advertising as well as bringing retail prices more in line with market supply reality. Putnam’s comments echo what we heard from a number of growers in recent days as the USDA October Citrus Crop Forecast brought many growers together last week to discuss the season and the market situation facing them. In the second report, Putnam comments on several issues of importance to citrus and agriculture in general as we look forward to business in the nation’s Capitol that lies ahead. By the way, as mentioned briefly in the final segment to these programs, the idea of a grower referendum with regard to the Department of Citrus sounds like it may be a dead issue at this point, and we expect more about that in the industry news pipeline in the days ahead.
In this report comments from Mike Sparks, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, about the recent October Citrus Crop Forecast from USDA and the market situation in need of a strong push to reduce the amount of orange juice already in the pipeline.
Stallings Crop Insurance is again an exclusive sponsors of our annual Citrus Crop Forecast broadcast.
Speaking recently with AgNet’s Ernie Neff, Richard Kinney of Florida Citrus Packers Association (photo left) discusses the outlook for Florida’s fresh fruit deal for the upcoming 2008-2009 season. 
In this report, Florida Agriculture & Citrus Statistics Administrator Candi Erick has a few more interesting details about the release recently of updated citrus tree and acreage statistics. Scroll to earlier reports to find links to the actual USDA documents with all the details. 
If we had an award of recognition for years of dedicated service to the citrus industry, we’d give it to Bob Terry. He plans to retire the first of June. He’s been handling citrus statistics for Florida Ag Statistics Service, working hand-in-hand with USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service for many years. He’s been a regular guest on our radio network and the featured guest of our “LIVE” October Citrus Crop Forecast Broadcast for more than a decade. We’ll talk to him about that between now and then. Meanwhile, in this report, Terry talks about what his team is noticing around the citrus crop in recent days and weeks. 
Listen to the recording of the 2007-2008 Citrus Crop Forecast given this morning by USDA-NASS Bob Terry.
In one of these two reports, USDA’s Bob Terry reviews the key Florida portions of the citrus crop forecast. In the other report, Florida Citrus Mutual Past President, Board Member and Citrus Grower Marty McKenna comments on the crop forecast moments after its release.
USDA will release its official Citrus Crop Forecast at 8:30 a.m. Friday October 12. Once again Southeast AgNet will provide “live” coverage through the radio network and on its websites. There will be several grower breakfasts taking place in different parts of the state. In this report, Bob Stallings of Stallings Crop Insurance discusses the second annual crop forecast grower breakfast he is hosting at his Ray-Bob Groves location in Polk County near Alturas. There are also grower breakfasts set for other areas, among them, one at the Elks Club in Arcadia, another at Joe Davis’ Barn near Wauchula, those two organized by 
