By Clint Thompson
Wet field conditions at the Sunbelt Ag Expo this summer and early fall have not dampened the expectation of great harvest demonstrations next week during the three-day Expo event on Oct. 19-21 in Moultrie, Georgia.
“We’ll be running that new John Deere 770 cotton picker in the field. We’ll be running the KMC peanut picker. Our hay demos will be going on for the three days of the show. Chevy will have their truck driving range. Everything’s looking good,” said Chip Blalock, Sunbelt Ag Expo Executive Director.
The field demos are one of the Expo’s highlights every year. The 100-acre exhibit area adjoins to a 600-acre working research farm. Attendees can ride trams from the exhibit area to the fields where cotton, peanuts, corn, soybeans and hay are being harvested.
The farm received an excessive amount of moisture this year during a rainy summer. The wet conditions even led to the annual Sunbelt Field Day being postponed in July. The constant rainfall definitely impacted some crops more than others.
“We had good yields on our corn plots, we got all the data. We got all of our grain sorghum out. Peanuts and cotton are going to be more adversely affected because peanuts are under ground and cotton doesn’t like it wet at all,” Blalock said. “Cotton likes it hot and dry when you have to run irrigation on it. It’s probably going to hurt the yield and grades on peanuts and cotton. But every day it dries out it’s going to make for a better harvest.”
More than 1,200 exhibitors and thousands of visitors are expected to visit the 100-acre show site during the three days; Oct. 19-21. Gates will open at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.