AgNet DEMO

Category: Georgia

  • Covered in Cover Crops

    By Emily Cabrera for UGA CAES News

    University of Georgia researchers are working on natural solutions to weed problems in row crops as government regulations of chemical herbicides grow stricter.

    Test plots at the the J. Phil Campbell Research Farm located near Watkinsville, Georgia, show (from left) cereal rye, no cover crop, living white clover mulch and crimson clover approximately three weeks after cotton planting. Areas in red indicate where Palmer amaranth seed was planted and will be monitored for suppression and reproduction over the next several years.

    Earlier in June, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pulled registrations for the use of all dicamba products for row-crop production. The herbicide, which has been around since the late 1960s, became more widely used with the introduction of chemical-resistant cotton and soybean varieties in 2016 that were cultivated in response to growing weed resistance. The herbicide has been at the center of increased controversy over its utilization in field crops due to inadvertent drift onto sensitive crops.

    With the increasing loss of effective chemistries, either due to weed resistance or through legislation, growers need more tools to choose from when tackling economically threatening weeds, especially as farmers continue to face increasingly erratic environmental conditions and other challenges.

    Nick Basinger

    “Anything we can do to help create more consistency should help growers do their job better,” said Nick Basinger, assistant professor of weed science in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

    Basinger is leading a research group that is examining the potential use of cover crops as part of an integrated weed management program in a number of commercial agricultural systems in Georgia. One of the benefits of cover crops is their ability to suppress weeds, such as Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri), during fallow periods between cash crops by preventing weed seeds from germinating.  

    “The goal of our work is to look at ways to manage crop and non-crop areas and try to take advantage of all the tools in the toolbox. Assessing what tools we have for each system, what tools we can potentially develop, then where the strengths and weaknesses are for those tools and what the ‘breaking points’ are so that we can develop comprehensive management practices,” explained Basinger. “This allows us to develop production systems to optimize weed management and gives growers the most advantage.”

    Cover crops are widely used throughout the Midwest U.S. in a number of production systems, so much of UGA’s research is being adapted from those systems to fit climate and soil demands in the Southeast. While cover crops have already been successfully used by some growers in parts of Georgia, the implementation is slow among farmers, as the body of research for growing cover crops in this region is still relatively limited. 

    Basinger and his team have eight to 10 projects underway in the Piedmont region of Georgia, with some of the work happening at the Southeast Georgia Research and Education Center in Midville. Multistate projects studying winter cover crops and summer cover crops will help researchers provide better recommendations for growers during those fallow periods between cash crops.

    Winter cover crops are usually planted in the fall after a cash crop has been harvested and will remain in the ground throughout the winter months. A summer cover crop is a quickly established cover crop that’s seeded between summer and winter cash crops to keep the soil covered and accumulating nitrogen.

    Summer cover crops can be used successfully in vegetable production because of the quick turnaround time before the next cash crop needs to go in the ground. Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids and sunn hemp, a warm-season annual legume, are quick to establish and rapidly put on biomass, making them great candidates for summer cover crops in Georgia.

    “Once projects are well established in the Piedmont, we will look to partner with growers in south Georgia,” said Basinger.

    This is the Basinger team’s first year working with cover crops in cotton production in the Piedmont. Because cotton is harvested later in the season, the team is looking at the potential for using cover crops that perform well early in the season within the cotton system.

    “This research is actually partially funded by Cotton Incorporated. They are interested in looking at integrated weed management, which is very exciting,” said Basinger.

    Winter cover crops used in the project are crimson clover and Wrens Abruzzi rye. Basinger is also adapting and evaluating a living mulch system in cotton using white clover, a spinoff project from UGA crop and soil sciences Professor Nick Hill’s previous work in corn production.

    David Weisberger, a doctoral candidate working with Basinger, is focusing on this research at the J. Phil Campbell Research Farm located near Watkinsville, Georgia. Research plots were sown with a known number of Palmer amaranth seeds in the selected cover crop species plots, and treated, bare-ground rows are used as control plots for comparison. Research will evaluate whether cover crops can suppress weeds over time by quantifying weed suppression, emergence counts, growth rates and fecundity.

    “The control plots are consistently full of weeds, whereas the cover crop plots are performing well because they limit the amount of light that weed seeds receive and reduce soil temperatures that are essential for Palmer amaranth germination,” said Basinger.

    Thus far, the team has observed the best results from the living mulch and cereal rye, but they are examining other important trade-offs that growers need to be aware of, such as water use requirements, shading issues and the potential for cover crops to compete for resources.

    “Originally, our research started as a weed focus, but we quickly realized this has more facets that need assessment, so we’ve adapted this research to provide a multidisciplinary approach,” Basinger said.

    In addition to looking at cover crops’ potential to suppress weeds in cotton, UGA crop and soil sciences researchers Nandita Gaur and Matthew Levi are studying hydrology and infiltration rates and soil health parameters including organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and pore space. Weisberger and UGA entomologist Bill Snyder are also looking at this project from an insect pest management approach.

    “This is just one tool in the toolbox — it’s not a cure-all — but we hope to demonstrate that, over time, cover crops have the potential to increase yields, minimize weed seed banks, improve soil health, reduce erosion and limit the amount of costly chemical inputs farmers need to apply for a successful harvest,” explained Basinger. “The beauty of this research is we assume all the risk and work out the problems first, then we are able to disseminate that information to growers so they can make the best decisions for their specific operations.”

    To learn more about what’s going on with Basinger’s research and stay up to date on what’s going on in the world of UGA weed science, follow him and his team on Instagram and Twitter (@ugaweeds). For more information on the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, visit cropsoil.uga.edu.

  • 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.”

  • 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.”

  • Potential Second Wave of Pandemic Could Impact Vegetable, Specialty Crop Producers

    By Clint Thompson

    The coronavirus pandemic struck in mid-March during harvest season for vegetable and specialty crop growers in the Southeast. Many fear a second wave of COVID-19 could strike again in October and November when temperatures start to drop. It is also when many producers have their fall crop in the ground.

    “The specialty crops would be where maybe we might see some shifts in market expectations and whether or not there’s concerns about continued disruptions in the supply chains,” said Adam Rabinowitz, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agricultural economist.  “The big question mark there is going to be having an alternative supply chain for distribution that’s available if in fact they are reliant on institutional buyers, where if we see another round of restaurants closing and that type of disruption. That was I think the big surprise this first time; how impactful that was, and we really hadn’t seen anything like that in the past.”

    Silver Linings

    One of the silver linings in an otherwise dark time for growers was finding alternative ways to sell their product. 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.

    “One morning I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning on a Monday after no sales all weekend with coolers full and I said, ‘What are we going to do?’ I talked to my nucleus about this. The upcoming weekend, we put it on social media that the prices we were going to sell produce for. The consumers were excited because they didn’t have money, I had a cooler full of produce that I already picked and packed. The companies that donate produce, they were filling up. We had nowhere to go with this stuff, so we just put a low price. Consumers came and ate it up,” Accursio said. “We worked our tails off; I think it was for about five hours just steady loading cars from 5:30 in the morning on. I think the first day it was 40,000 pounds, the whole trailer load of produce was sold; one box here, seven boxes there.

    “The first day, the line was two hours long. The consumers, what they told me when they finally got up there and I’m apologizing, they said, ‘Listen, we’re all at home. We have nothing better to do.’”

    Same Thing in the Fall

    Accursio said he sold about 60,000 pounds of produce the same way the following weekend. At 50 cents per pound, consumers received a great deal to support a local farmer.

    “I couldn’t let the consumers down because they helped us out of a super jam. We kept on doing it on a smaller basis with the strictly local people coming then. When we had the big sales going on, we had people driving two or three hours to come here. We had shipments, trailer loads going to Key West from here. It was an amazing thing to watch,” said Accursio, who says he will continue this type of marketing in the fall.

    “I never really thought about selling directly to consumers but now we are gearing up for October to continue this.”

    Rabinowitz added, “Having those type of distribution options available can be very significant as not just a fallback strategy but also just as a means to increase sales on a regular basis.”

  • NOFA Deadline for CFAP is Today

    By Clint Thompson

    Today, June 22, is the last day for growers and industry leaders to submit information and data to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) about crops to be considered for inclusion in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).

    There is a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) where stakeholders and producers of other commodities can submit information and data for consideration to be included in the program. These must be submitted by today. This is specifically for data on any commodity not currently eligible for CFAP.

    Not all commodities were covered under CFAP, which provides financial assistance to producers who have suffered a 5%-or-greater price decline or who had losses due to market supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 and face additional significant market costs.

    CFAP applications will be accepted through Aug. 28. Producers should apply through the FSA at their local USDA Service Center.

    According to Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Association, Georgia farmers are looking to add several commodities to the list covered under CFAP. These include kale, mustard, collards, turnips and specialty lettuce.

  • Red Node Disease in Beans a Potential Problem

    File photo shows green beans.

    By Clint Thompson

    Red Node Disease, aka Tobacco Streak Virus, was discovered in beans in a Florida vegetable field this spring. It’s vectored by thrips and could potentially be a problem for farmers this fall, according to Prissy Fletcher, University of Florida/IFAS Agricultural Extension agent for St. Johns County, Florida.

    “I have been here 14 months and since I have been here, we had never seen this disease. Speaking with some of my predecessors, this has not been an issue that we have seen before. It’s a new situation for us,” Fletcher said. “Even though the virus was first identified in Homestead, Florida in 2014, we weren’t aware of this issue in beans up here. But after doing a literature review and knowing it had been in South Florida, looking back, it was just a matter of time before we found it here. This is definitely a new situation for us locally that we’re going to attack as a team and get a good IPM plan.”

    Thrips Need to be Contained

    Thrips vector the disease and are the key in farmers managing it successfully. They are tiny insects that can feed on various hosts while spreading different diseases. Thrips in peanuts can lead to tomato spotted wilt virus. Onion thrips or western flower thrips are the pests that vector Red Node Disease in beans. But they can also feed on squash, cotton and different weed species.

    “A lot of this is going to boil down to communication, communicating with your neighbors, other folks who are growing crops that can be affected by thrips, which is just about everything. A good IPM program for thrips is going to be pretty crucial,” Fletcher said. “Just the importance of communicating with your neighbors about disease spreading, pest management and working together as a system because if your neighbor has that problem, you’re likely to be impacted by that as well.”

    Fletcher said the impact on beans can be devastating. Symptoms include reddening of the stem, nodes and leaf veins. Infected pods show patterns of necrotic red patches. The spread of the disease can make the pods fall off, shrivel up or not even produce the beans themselves.

    “It could be pretty bad for that farmer if that disease spreads,” Fletcher said. “Prevention is going to be key.”

    Fletcher said farmers will begin planting their fall crop in September and early October.

    “The production of beans in this area is increasing, which is pretty exciting. Seeing more farmers diversifying and taking on more of these alternative crops. It’s pretty cool stuff. Then we find this disease and it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness. Okay, we’ve got to figure this out before next season.’ So prevention, prevention, prevention,” Fletcher said.