By Clint Thompson
Southeast farmers are always eyeing the future. What does it entail for their crops and production practices, and how can growers remain sustainable? The Sunbelt Ag Expo Field Day on Thursday provided producers a chance to observe research in action and talk with scientists and industry leaders about what the future may hold for specific crops.
Chip Blalock, Sunbelt Ag Expo executive director in Moultrie, Georgia, talked about the importance of events like the field day that will aid growers in making future cropping decisions.
“It’s just a great time for the farmers to come out and see the crops in the growing stages; cotton, peanuts, corn, grain sorghum, sunflowers and bermudagrass. We’re looking at the latest technology in seed varieties, crop protection, fertility, precision Ag and irrigation. We’re gathering information to start making planting decisions and crop rotation decisions for 2024 and 2025,” Blalock said.
What was Discussed?
University of Georgia researchers were in attendance to discuss the ongoing weed management program in controlling palmer amaranth; the future of drones and their effectiveness in applying chemical sprays; bermudagrass research; and peanut production in this year’s crop.
Exhibitors set up in the fields and alongside the road at the Darrell Williams Research Farm. Attendees had the opportunity to stop and talk with the scientists about the different products being researched.
Research has been a challenge this year because of the sporadic rainfall that’s impacted South Georgia.
“It has been off and on all summer. We’ve gotten some timely rains. We were behind planting the corn because of the rain. We were really wet at the end of June, first of July, and now we’ve dried off again,” Blalock said. “It has definitely been an interesting year for sure with the intermittent rainfall. But we probably haven’t had to run the irrigation as much this year as we did last year.”