With thousands of additional COVID-19 cases being added each day in Florida, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried called Thursday for a statewide requirement that people wear masks in public places.
Nikki Fried Florida Agriculture Commissioner
Many local governments have approved mask requirements as the number of cases has surged this month, but Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to issue a statewide order. Fried, the only Democrat on the state Cabinet, has been highly critical of the Republican governor’s handling of the pandemic.
In a prepared statement Thursday, Fried described a statewide mask requirement as “common sense” and pointed to other states that have imposed such requirements.
“Everybody should be wearing masks,” Fried told The News Service of Florida this week. “We know that the masks are not going to stop the spread, but it certainly will slow it down. We also need to reinforce that COVID is not behind us. So, everybody needs to stay vigilant. Everybody needs to continue social distancing.”
The Florida Department of Health on Thursday, reported an additional 5,004 COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 114,018. The department also reported 46 additional deaths, bringing the death toll from the disease to 3,327.
With the majority of his spring and summer crop harvested and sold, Florida vegetable farmer Sam Accursio reflects on the challenges and struggles he faced this year amid the coronavirus pandemic and Mexico’s daily exports of produce into the U.S.
“With our vegetable season, way back to February when things started shutting down and then in March and April; in March it was just very tough to operate with no restaurants opening. Then in April, it kind of smoothed out a little bit. Then as we were ending our season it started getting real bad, thinking about the growers up above us and it must have been a horrible situation for them entering their season right in the middle of everything shut down,” Accursio said. “The early part of our year was good. Mexico wobbled a few times with weather. Every time they wobbled or got some kind of serious rain or cold, everybody comes to the Southeast to buy produce. That happened a few times and made it interesting early on.”
Accursio operates in Homestead, Florida and is in the process of finishing his okra harvests. He is also planting his cover crops and fixing machinery, typical producer responsibilities when the crops are not in the ground. He will plant his fall crop in September.
Alternative Ways to Sell Produce
He was one of many producers in the Sunshine State who felt gloom in March through June. When the pandemic struck in mid-March, restaurants closed their doors. When expected buyers of Florida produce shut down for multiple months, it forced farmers to think outside of the box in how they sold their crops.
Accursio posted on social media about produce for sale as part of his new marketing initiative, selling directly to consumers. Cars lined up for a two-hour wait the first day. He sold 40,000 pounds followed by 60,000 pounds the following week. It was an amazing turnaround for a farmer who is contemplating something similar in the fall but on a smaller scale.
“Time will tell if it’s something we can do to provide a service to the local community. My local community, there’s 2 to 3 million people here. I have all of Miami, and south of Orlando there’s 8.2 million people. Just give me that market, I’ll be happy,” Accursio said.
University of Georgia photo/Shows fruit split in blueberries.
By Clint Thompson
A difficult year for the blueberry industry, which started in Florida amid the coronavirus pandemic, continued in Georgia. Farmers reported fruit splits and yeast rot in their rabbit-eye blueberry crop. The result was a down year where packing houses closed because of the lack of quality fruit coming in.
Excess Rainfall the Culprit?
Jonathan Oliver, University of Georgia small fruits pathologist, said rainfall is the main contributor for fruit splits in blueberries this year, which left them vulnerable to disease infections like yeast rot.
Jonathan Oliver
“They’re likely very related to one another. The fruit splits are an issue that’s commonly seen if we get rain or a lot of irrigation on the fruit itself if the fruit is near ripening. When the fruit is getting close to getting fully ripe, the walls of the fruit, the skin has expanded as far is it can expand. If you get water on the outside of the fruit, the fruit can suck that through the skin. But the skin can’t expand any further. It’ll just pop the berry,” Oliver said. “You’ll start to get splits either near the end of the berry or the whole berry can just split into.
“Once you have fruit that’s starting to split, you can get lots of things in there, including yeast rot. The fungus that causes yeast rot is just naturally present all over the place. It’s not likely an unexpected find to find the fungus but it doesn’t usually cause a major issue on blueberries. But it can if the fruit is wounded in some other way. We think the splits, which were probably caused by the heavy rainfall we had for two to three weeks prior to (growers) starting to harvest some of these rabbit-eye varieties led to the splits which led to the rampant infection with this fungus which causes yeast rot.”
What does yeast rot do?
Oliver said yeast rot can cause fruit to rapidly collapse and take on a wet, slimy appearance. Fruit heavily affected by yeast rot may have a distinct fermented odor.
Water damage on blueberries right before harvest can also occur if overhead irrigation is used, though, most farmers know to abstain from doing this. Oliver said fruit splits happens from time to time but seems to be a much bigger issue this year.
The damage leaves the fruit unmarketable. Several growers had loads rejected because of low quality fruit.
“The fruit having splits, even if they’re just small splits near the end, they’re not going to be quality fruit. They’re not going to hold up very well through the process of harvesting them, packing them, shipping them and getting them to the consumer. Packing houses will usually look for low quality fruit initially, so they make sure they’re not sending low quality fruit on that won’t be purchased,” Oliver said.
Fruit splits appears to also be a problem isolated to Georgia.
“I talked to Phil Harmon, who’s the Extension pathologist there at UF, and he said he’s not seen major problems with yeast rot in Florida before. He was surprised to hear we were having these problems. I don’t believe they had a similar issue there,” Oliver said.
Ant damage on young hemp plants remains a problem for growers in the Southeast.
Katelyn Kesheimer, Auburn University Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, fears ants will continue to be a nuisance since hemp plantings will continue through July.
Katelyn Kesheimer
“I think it’s going to be a struggle all season long because there’s so many different plantings going in. We’re still seeing hemp go in the ground,” Kesheimer said. “The field I was in (Wednesday) had pretty extensive damage. They seem to do their worst damage, like most insects, when the plants are really young and vulnerable. They’ll just tear through those stems, or the plants can’t establish a good root system.
“What I’m seeing now is they’ll kill a plant and just move to the next one pretty quickly. You can see this pattern as they move their mounds. They make these mounds around the base of the plant as they’re feeding.”
Weather Affects Hemp Plants
Hemp plants are especially vulnerable right now considering the unpredictable weather patterns the Southeast has experienced in the last couple of months.
“It got really warm pretty early and then we had that cool, wet May. Things slowed down a little bit and I also think stressed out the plants. I’m seeing that in a few different crops,” Kesheimer said. “That makes them more vulnerable to insect attack; you can’t really fight off feeding damage or even a pathogen if you’re stressed out from up-and-down weather, which the plants don’t really like.”
Kesheimer stresses that ant damage is not isolated to hemp plantings in Alabama.
“We see fire ant issues in hemp all the way far north as North Carolina. It’s very widespread. I’ve gotten calls from growers in Louisiana with caterpillars and ants,” Kesheimer said.
Ants really are destructive during periods of excess moisture. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Georgia and Florida are drought free and only pockets of South Alabama and North Alabama are abnormally dry. The region has received its share of rainfall recently.
“I’m not complaining that we’re getting rain, but the ants really like it. After the rain, you’ll have these big mating swarms that fly around; the females will drop to the ground and lose their wings and attempt to start a new mound. They’re going to spread and go through fields with this weather we’re having. It’s not great,” Kesheimer said. “I’m recommending that people bait and treat individual mounds depending on their situation, how big their farm is. We need to do something. Otherwise, you’re going to lose a lot of yield.”
COLUMBIA – Seven agricultural innovators will receive money for their businesses from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship (ACRE).
Entrepreneurs pitched their businesses to a panel of judges who selected seven to share $125,000 in funding based on their business plans, presentations and demonstrated history of business success.
Hugh Weathers
Kara and Matthew Rutter of Project Victory Gardens in Aiken County will expand their agritherapy and agricultural education program for military veterans, including building a teaching kitchen.
Ben Crawford and Rebecca Goldberg of Woodland Valley Mushrooms in Aiken County plan to expand their Aiken-area gourmet mushroom operation.
The brother-sister team behind Twin Creeks Lavender in Anderson County will build a drying and production barn to ensure expanded crop production at their Williamston lavender farm.
York County’s Nance Farm Creamery, operated by a 12th generation farm family, was awarded funding to help market its dairy products locally.
Alicia Holbrook intends to expand remote educational offerings at her alpaca farm Carolina Pride Pastures in Newberry County.
Orangeburg County’s Lowcountry Creamery, a value-added dairy operation located in Bowman, was awarded funding to provide their milk and yogurt direct to consumers.
Kristen Beigay, of Pickens County, has a worm farm Earthen Organics and intends to purchase new equipment to expand her family’s organic worm castings business.
SCDA founded ACRE in 2018 to help identify and nurture new ideas and businesses in the Palmetto State’s agribusiness sector. In addition to the Advanced Entrepreneurship track whose 2020 awardees are announced here, ACRE offers a curriculum program each fall to train and mentor beginning agricultural entrepreneurs.
“The future of South Carolina agriculture depends on innovation – we must grow and develop to survive,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers. “I hope these seven entrepreneurs inspire continued development and innovation across South Carolina agribusiness.”
Photo by John Diaz, UF/IFAS/In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of bilingual UF/IFAS Extension agents has created a series of educational videos to market its services and provide educational information to underserved Spanish-speaking audiences throughout Florida.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of bilingual UF/IFAS Extension agents has created a series of educational videos to market its services and provide educational information to underserved Spanish-speaking audiences throughout Florida.
Known as the CAFÉ Latino (the Coalition of Florida Extension for Latino/Hispanics), the 45-member volunteer group of UF/IFAS Extension faculty works as a grass-roots organization to serve Florida’s 67 counties. CAFÉ Latino translates, disseminates and connects Hispanic and Latinx residents with information, resources and programming, specifically for non-English speaking residents.
This time of social distancing makes the videos even more crucial, and the need for them is even more pronounced by the recent news about a sharp increase in COVID-19 infection rates in Florida’s Hispanic communities, said Jonael Bosques-Mendez, director of UF/IFAS Extension Hardee County and a CAFE Latino volunteer.
“These are people who work our fields to provide food to your tables,” he said. “These underserved populations have been devastated by COVID-19, and UF/IFAS Extension publications are available with specific instructions on how to protect themselves.”
The videos, titled, “Produciendo en Tiempos de Distanciamiento Social,” are their latest effort. They’re aimed at helping those whose primary language is Spanish and to do so at a time of social distancing.
“In an attempt to better reach Spanish-speaking audiences, CAFÉ Latino members have created a science-based series of videos interviews and demonstrative videos,” said Francisco Rivera, an agricultural agent with UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County and a member of CAFÉ Latino.
The videos cover soil nutrition, farm business planning, reproductive management of beef cattle, 4-H youth development, plant genetic selection, ornamental horticulture and many more topics.
Among other things, the material provided by CAFÉ Latino helps business owners implement provide protective practices to safeguard employees and clients, Bosques-Mendez said.
The idea for the videos stemmed from a need CAFÉ Latino faculty saw to help those who were either laid off or working from home.
“From our initial videos, we were contacted by a community that’s in both Puerto Rico and Florida that wanted to learn about backyard chicken production.”
CAFÉ Latino met with the group several times to gauge its needs, developed surveys and conducted two workshops. As a result, the community organized a leadership structure in which they are now buying in bulk and contacting their county Extension agent.
The group also has adopted recommended practices in food safety regarding egg-handling, biosecurity and appropriate ways to reuse poultry waste by composting it and reusing it to fertilize their crops. This reduces the chance for environmental issues associated with nutrient runoff, Bosques-Mendez said.
“Today, more than ever, we see the need to empower as many people as we can in our imperfect society with meaningful and relevant experiences that provide positive change to individuals,” he said. “UF/IFAS Extension utilizes many educators who are willing to facilitate their subject-matter expertise with those that fall in the 20.2% of Florida’s population – people who only speak Spanish, but who need the resources we typically provide in English.”
Without these videos, it would be impossible to reach the wide audiences CAFÉ Latino seeks to attain, he said. All this effort helps improve communities, provide for a more sufficient food system and preserve the environment.
“Through science-based learning, stemming from research results conducted in Florida, agricultural enterprises, families and individuals can learn, reevaluate their management practices and adopt the recommendations we discuss in these videos in an accessible way,” Bosques-Mendez said. “And they can do so without having to leave the comfort of their home, and in their native language.
“CAFÉ Latino exists to promote cultural awareness, diversity and inclusion,” said John Diaz, chair of CAFÉ Latino and a UF/IFAS assistant professor of agricultural education and communication in the UF/IFAS Plant City office. “At a time when we are in a health crisis, there is a need for dissemination of information in Spanish and that is culturally relevant. We are serving organizations and agencies with those cultural competencies and more.”
Max Runge, Extension specialist in agricultural economics at Auburn University, believes there was impact from the coronavirus pandemic on vegetable and specialty crop growers in Alabama.
Max Runge
Some have still thrived with their businesses and U-pick operations despite a pandemic dating back to mid-March. Others struggled to find their footing when restaurants were forced to close and stay shut down for multiple months. Finding alternative ways to sell products was essential.
“In general, I think it’s sort of a mixed bag. There are some of the specialty crop growers that are doing okay; ones that are letting people come to their blueberries, blackberries and strawberries; they’re getting picked out, almost daily. They’re almost having to control how much is picked every day,” Runge said. “The ones that may have been supplying restaurants were obviously hurt. If there’s a second wave and we have more closures and not able to do the serving, sit-down, that may be a market that they lose but selling direct, selling off of a website is a definite possibility. I think it’s beneficial.”
Potential Second Wave of Pandemic
A potential “second wave” of COVID-19 is also a possibility and could strike when temperatures start to cool, likely in October or November. Runge expects most vegetable and specialty crop growers will not alter their plans for the fall growing season.
“Looking forward, I think like most of agriculture, our specialty crop producers are going to go ahead and plant sort of what they typically would and maybe even expand, depending on their location. If they can get it to a farmer’s market or get to the consumers in a safe way, I think they’re going to go ahead and do it,” Runge said.
Runge said Alabama Extension has issued a survey to agricultural producers and industry leaders to gauge the COVID-19 impact on agriculture in that state. It should close on June 30.
“Hopefully, sometime in July, we’ll have at least an idea of what the impact COVID has been on agriculture,” Runge said.
Farmers can learn a lot from the first coronavirus pandemic in preparations for a potential “second wave” that might occur this fall.
Christa Court, assistant scientist in the University of Florida/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department, said producers who were willing to adjust on the fly this spring fared more successfully than those who did not.
Christa Court
“I think a lot of the things that we’re learning from that the types of industries or the types of operations that are struggling are the ones that operate within a single geography or they have a single supplier for some of their key products or inputs. They didn’t see the risks coming or maybe had inventory systems that were not able to store product for the time being when operations were shut down,” Court said. “I think those are going to be the things we learn from more than looking at any specific impact that we saw from March to mid-May because we might be in a completely different situation if we come to a second wave.”
There were growers who found success in adjusting to how they sold their crops this spring. Tifton, Georgia farmer Bill Brim thought Inside the Box when he decided to sell boxed produce straight to consumers for several weeks in April, May and June. Customers lined up the roads waiting to buy local and support a farmer who felt the pinch of a lack of a foodservice market.
Florida vegetable farmer Sam Accursio also thought creatively in a way to provide produce to customers at a cheaper-than-normal rate in late March and early April. He sold 40,000 pounds of produce the first weekend and 60,000 pounds the next.
“One of the other studies that I mentioned before was saying that operations that were too rigid and not willing to adjust were some of the ones that were struggling the most. I think just being open to new opportunities is one way that they can move product if they end up in a similar situation,” Court said.
UF/IFAS Survey
Court and UF/IFAS issued a survey this spring to analyze COVID-19 and its impact on farming operations throughout Florida. While it is normally used during times of natural disasters like hurricanes, the same premise can be applied to growers during a global pandemic. The idea is to assess what was going on with growers specifically.
“The main aspect we were really interested in was what was going on with sales revenues. Across all of the commodity groups that we were able to analyze, there’s a wide range of reports from losing almost everything to some operations saying they were doing 80 or 90 percent more business than they were last year. If we take an average across all of them for each commodity group, the sales revenues are down about 20% and 60%,” said Court, who added that more than 700 respondents replied to the survey.
“A lot of what we normally see with something like a hurricane is that the supply is hit. Oranges fall off a tree. Field crops are flooded. But here it was that the demand was shut off. Even if a grower had a product that was ready to go to market, there was nobody there to buy it.”
University of Georgia Extension photo/Shows early black pecan aphid damage.
By Clint Thompson
According to UGA Extension, aphids are one of the most important pests pecan growers need to manage during the growing season. And they’re also one of the most difficult to control.
Black-margined aphids and yellow aphids are present all season but it’s not uncommon to see a spike in numbers in mid-to-late June and in August. Andrew Sawyer, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension area pecan agent for Southeast District, said it’s important not to treat black aphids until you start seeing nymph clusters. The threshold is when nymph clusters appear on damaged leaves.
With yellow aphids, a glossy appearance on the leaves called honeydew is commonly seen. Tree leaves can absorb a good bit of honeydew and be fine. The threshold is 50 aphids per compound leaf.
If you’re seeing aphid damage on your pecan trees, Sawyer offers these tips.
Don’t spray broadspectrum insecticides. These are pyrethroids and chlorpyrifos. These will harm beneficial insects and flare aphids.
Ignore yellow aphids.
Ignore black aphids before late July.
If black aphids flare up within 3 to 4 weeks following application, apply aphid insecticides and rotate.
Apply gibberellic acid, which is a plant growth regulator. It can prevent black pecan aphid injury and inhibit the establishment of black pecan aphids in the orchard. Gibberellic acid does not affect aphids directly and will not control any other pest, including yellow aphids. Three applications should be made at 2-week intervals, beginning in mid-July, applying 10 oz (or 5 oz of ProGibb LV Plus) each time.
Try to save Nexter late season if needed for black aphids when mites are a problem.
Sawyer emphasizes the importance of beneficial insects. The two easiest to see in the orchard are lady bug larvae and the eggs of green lace wings. If you flip over a compound leaf and see either of these, your beneficial population is good.
IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Kim Morgan is coming home, in a manner of speaking.
Morgan graduated from the University of Florida three times. Mostly recently, she began her position as an associate professor of food and resources economics for the UF/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee. For now, due to CDC stay-at-home guidelines, Morgan is working for UF/IFAS, albeit from her home in Virginia.
Morgan comes to the Immokalee center after earning tenure at Virginia Tech as an assistant and recently, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics. Before that, she worked as an assistant professor at Mississippi State.
Kim Morgan
Kelly Morgan (no relation), director of the Southwest Florida REC, is pleased to have Kim Morgan as a new faculty member, saying, “She has years of experience in agribusiness and marketing at two respected universities in the Southeast.”
As the newest member of the SWFREC faculty, Kim Morgan looks forward to investigating issues brought to the attention of scientists at UF/IFAS and partner agencies by agribusiness owners.
“People drive my research and Extension programs,” Morgan said. “Specialty crops are my primary commodity of interest, and I want to look into how changing consumer preferences along with government regulations and policies may influence grower decisions to adopt new production practices.”
She also wants to help farmers use marketing techniques to reduce the costs of navigating the food supply chain directly to consumers.
Not only did Morgan earn degrees from the UF/IFAS animal sciences and food and resource economics departments, she worked as an analyst with the department’s Florida Agricultural Market Research Center. There, she helped find solutions to production, marketing, financial and human risks unique to the agricultural sector.
Now, she’s helping growers in the fertile agricultural area of Southwest Florida.
“SWFREC is located in one of the most unique environments in the country — right in the middle of larger-scale agricultural operations led by stewards of the natural resources that make it possible to produce a wide range of commodities while surrounded by an ever-growing population,” Morgan said. “As an economist, I see it as the most exciting place in the world to study how people, companies and policymakers make decisions that impact local customers and retailers, contribute to global food-supply chains and address the intersection of agricultural, environmental, and residential resource uses.”
