AgNet DEMO

Category: Alabama

  • USMCA Set to Enter Into Force July 1

    The USMCA will enter into force on July 1.

    By Clint Thompson

    Wednesday, July 1 marks a new era for North American Trade.

    The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will enter into force July 1. But according to economists and industry leaders, the agreement still does not provide much protection for vegetable and specialty crop producers.

    Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association President Mike Joyner:

    “When Congress passed USMCA, we unfortunately did not get the provisions we were hoping for in USMCA. The Florida delegation, to the person, hung together. Because they hung together, we were able to get a commitment from Ambassador (Robert) Lighthizer to come up with a plan as to how we’re going to address this issue,” Joyner said. “We felt like that was a strong commitment. It’s in writing. We trust Ambassador Lighthizer. Right now, all indications are USMCA will go into effect July 1.

    “If you go back and look at the letter, the commitment that the delegation was able to get, that within 60 days of entry into force, Ambassador Lighthizer has to have a plan. We’ll present some information to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office that they need to consider. It’s data that clearly shows what’s happening with Mexican produce. We’re hoping that over the next two or three months, we can work with Ambassador Lighthizer and his team and come up with something that will help solve this issue.”

    University of Georgia Extension Ag Economist Adam Rabinowitz:

    “The concern with the USMCA, in terms of specialty crops, is that there are a lot of lower priced crops, low cost labor in Mexico that are coming into the U.S. and competing with southeast fruits and vegetables. There was hope that there would be some restrictions or some assistance that would help with the ability to compete with those Mexican imports. But there was nothing within that. As a result, it’s looking like there’s going to be a challenge in terms of being able to compete on price with the southeast fruits and vegetables with the imports from Mexico.”

    Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Association:

    “It’s insulting to the specialty crop growers who are suffering with COVID-19. It’s taken away markets. Then on top of that, we’ve got Mexican products coming in on top of us to drive the prices even further down.”

    According to the USMCA press release, the agreement marks the beginning of a historic new chapter for North American trade by supporting more balanced, reciprocal trade, leading to freer markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth in North America. However, Southeast farmers still will compete against imports of Mexican produce.

  • Sneak Peek: July 2020 VSCNews Magazine

    By: Ashley Robinson

    The July issue of VSCNews magazine focuses on a variety of topics, including machine harvesting of blueberries, strawberry pests and diseases and technology for vegetable production.

    Blueberry growers and packers are adopting the latest innovations and technology to reduce harvesting costs and put less reliance on contract laborers. Fumiomi Takeda, a research horticulturalist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia and Steven Sargent, professor and Extension postharvest specialist at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), discuss the results from a study with USDA and several land-grant institutions, comparing different harvesting methods of blueberries.

    Takeda returns for another article, this time joined by Wojciech Janisiewicz, a research plant pathologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia. They take a look at how USDA researchers are successfully using Ultraviolet light to control pests and diseases in strawberry production.

    Vegetable growers face a variety of challenges. However, new advancements in technology may help growers address these production issues. Yiannis Ampatzidis, an assistant professor at UF, presents growers with examples of state-of-the-art technologies that may be useful in vegetable production today or in the near future.

    Tomato and Pepper Spotlight

    The crop spotlight returns in July, this time with a focus on peppers and tomatoes.

    Xavier Martini, an assistant professor, and Joe Funderburk, a professor, both at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy, Florida, provide tomato growers with thrip management strategies.

    Anthracnose is a serious disease that occurs across pepper-growing regions worldwide. Pam Roberts, a professor at the UF/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) in Immokalee, Florida shares management measures with growers.

    In the tomato and pepper spotlight, Gene McAvoy, associate director for stakeholder relations at the UF/IFAS SWFREC, shares some tips and tricks with growers on how to select varieties with profit potential.

    VSC Expo Set For Aug. 12-13

    Finally, readers will get a preview of the upcoming Citrus Expo and Vegetable & Specialty Crop Expo.

    The annual event will take place Aug. 12-13 at the Lee Civic Center in North Fort Myers, Florida. Growers can register here and automatically be entered for a chance to win a John Deere gun safe courtesy of Everglades Equipment Group. To learn more about the Citrus Expo and Vegetable & Specialty Crop Expo, including host hotel information, visit http://citrusexpo.net/. To receive future issues of VSCNews magazine, visit click here.

  • Bacterial Spot Leaving Mark in Tomato Crops

    File photo shows bacterial spot disease in tomatoes.

    By Clint Thompson

    Bacterial spot in tomatoes has been observed in various locations in Alabama, according to Ed Sikora, professor and Extension plant pathologist in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Auburn University.

    He believes the excess rainfall and abnormal temperatures contributed to the disease being more problematic this year.

     “I think this year with the moisture we’ve had this spring and slightly cooler temperatures, I think it’s more of a problem than normal. In talking with the growers, it appears to be a yearly problem,” Sikora said. “We were in these fields four weeks ago and we had a fairly hard time finding the disease, it would just be in small pockets. Then (last week) when I was out sampling in Mobile (Ala.), it was throughout the field to the top of the upper canopy of the plant. It can move pretty swiftly.”

    What is bacterial spot?

    According to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, bacterial spot attacks the stems, petioles, leaves and fruit. Spots are circular and brown and become water-soaked during periods of heavy rains. Symptoms on the fruit itself are tiny raised blisters.  

    “You can get some defoliation, some blight of the leaves, which I think can have an effect on yield. How much? I do not know. It can get to the fruit, you can get some fruit lesions,” Sikora said. “That can make them unmarketable.”

    The disease is spread by rain, workers and tools. The best method for control is to rotate crops and field sites and remove any plant debris and eliminate potential hosts.

    “Typically, the disease will often come in on transplants, so it’s very hard to control in the transplant house. Sometimes it can survive on debris in the field,” Sikora said. “Some of these growers are not rotating, they just don’t have the room.”

    Resistance Problem

    Sikora estimates that between 75% and 80% of populations of the disease pathogen are resistant to copper, which has been the chemical product of choice for growers. It will keep the populations down but does not clean it up entirely. Tomato growers are tolerating the disease instead of controlling it completely.

    “They’re seeing the same problems in Florida and I’m sure Georgia and other places. This resistance is not a new phenomenon, but it’s been developing over time. Growers will still be spraying copper and hopefully they can knock down populations a bit,” Sikora said. “Probably our best bet will be developing resistant varieties. The same disease also goes to peppers. But when you start searching peppers, you’ll see that peppers, certain varieties have resistance to this pathogen. If you have a resistant variety, you don’t have to worry about spraying copper. At this point, I don’t recall any bacterial spot resistant tomatoes on the market.”

  • Grape Producers Need to be Wary of Downy Mildew Disease

    University of Georgia photo/Shows presence of downy mildew disease.

    By Clint Thompson

    Grape producers in north Alabama and north Georgia need to be wary of downy mildew disease. It has been confirmed in vonifera grapes in two separate Georgia locations, says Phil Brannen, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension fruit disease specialist.

    “My hope is that if folks are spraying well, if they’re actually effective in spraying the vines and keeping fungicides on the vines, hopefully they won’t see this,” Brannen said.

    Phil Brannen

    He said initial symptoms of downy mildew are “oil” spots on the upper leaf surface with white, fluffy spore formation on the underside of the leaf. The important factor for grape producers to consider is protecting your leaves. As Brannen often preaches to his students at UGA, “plants don’t do well without leaves.”

    “What we more often see with downy mildew on grapes and the susceptible varieties is that it will actually infect the leaves and you’ll get so much infection potentially if you don’t get enough fungicide out in a timely fashion, you could actually lose your leaves,” Brannen said. “If you lose your leaves, even though you have grapes that look fine … you cannot mature a grape for wine in that way. You’re going to have a real bad wine that would come from those grapes. You don’t want that to happen.”

    First Discovered

    Brannen said he first discovered downy mildew in a vineyard in west Georgia. But last week it showed up in his research plots in Watkinsville, Georgia.

    “The secondary thing is if you lose enough leaves then you don’t store enough carbohydrates to the root system to survive the winter and you’ll have winter damage.”

    Brannen cautions growers who are scouting for downy mildew to not confuse it with powdery mildew symptoms. In his Extension blog, Brannen said, “If you falsely identify downy mildew as powdery mildew, you are likely to start an aggressive spray program for powdery mildew that just allows the downy mildew to only get worse.”

    Brannen provides a video on how to properly identify the presence of downy mildew.

    He recommends incorporating highly efficacious materials such as Zampro, Revus, Ridomil Gold MZ (note the pre-harvest interval), etc. in spray programs moving forward.

    Rain Contributes to Disease

    The wet conditions have only fueled downy mildew’s fire in recent weeks.

    “We’re getting a tremendous amount of rain in the last week or two. It seems like it rains every couple of days, if not every day. A lot of pop-up thunderstorms. That wets the leaves. The morning dews have been really wet. We tried to spray on Monday, went up to Blairsville (Georgia) to spray and we were just covered up in wetness,” Brannen said.

  • Fruit Splits, Yeast Rot Contribute to Tough Year for Blueberry Farmers

    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 Swarms Continue to be Problematic for Hemp Producers

    File photo shows a field of hemp plants.

    By Clint Thompson

    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.”

  • Coronavirus Pandemic Impacts Alabama Vegetable, Specialty Crop Producers

    By Clint Thompson

    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.

  • UF Economist: Be Open to New Opportunities

    By Clint Thompson

    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.”

  • Scout Aphids Early and Often

    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.

    1. Don’t spray broadspectrum insecticides. These are pyrethroids and chlorpyrifos. These will harm beneficial insects and flare aphids.
    2. Ignore yellow aphids.
    3. Ignore black aphids before late July.
    4. If black aphids flare up within 3 to 4 weeks following application, apply aphid insecticides and rotate.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.

  • Florida Blueberry Farmer: USMCA Not a Good Deal For Vegetable, Specialty Crop Producers

    By Clint Thompson

    One of the most vocal critics of Mexican imports into the U.S. is adamant that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will not help or protect vegetable or specialty crop producers.

    Blueberries are a popular commodity in the U.S. but also as an import from Mexico.

    “No, that’s not a good deal for specialty crops. They didn’t really address our issues at all. That was not a good deal for us,” said Ryan Atwood, blueberry farmer, who lives in Mount Dora, Florida, and is one of the state’s blueberry leaders. He farms 56 acres of blueberries, manages another 350 acres and is part-owner of the largest packing house in the Southeast United States.

    USMCA Background

    According to the USMCA, the agreement, once it enters into force on July 1, will support mutually beneficial trade leading to freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in North America. But critics of the agreement will point to lack of protection for specialty crop farmers who already have to compete against imports of Mexican produce. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue even acknowledged concerns by specialty crop growers.

    The idea of fair trade seems more like a fantasy than reality for growers in the Southeast who, not only had to overcome the coronavirus pandemic this year but had to compete against the constant influx of Mexican imports.  

    “They don’t have the regulations we have. They don’t have to abide by the same rules. Their labor is definitely cheaper. They pay somebody $12 per day. I’ve got to pay them $12 an hour to get labor. It’s hard to compete with that. It’s real hard to compete with that,” Atwood said.

    Domestic Supply of Food

    Atwood commented in late April that he was “a fan of having our own domestic supply of food.” Agricultural imports from Mexico may be cheaper, but they’re not American grown. Atwood and Florida vegetable farmer Sam Accursio continue to preach the importance of supporting the American farmer.

    “I think it’s a security issue for our country,” Atwood said in late April. “We’ve got to grow our own food. You saw what happened 10 or 12 years ago when we used to import all that oil and then we got our own domestic supply going again. Other countries are going to be able to control you if they control your food supply.”

    Accursio added, “If you take Florida and California away in the winter, what do you have? You have third-world countries feeding this great nation, and I’m not going to eat it. I’m not going to do it.”