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  • Imperfect Competition Yields Profitable Market Opportunities

    By Kimberly L. Morgan and Jessica Ryals

    Photo credit: © Foap.com / stock.adobe.com

    In nearly all introductory economics courses, the agricultural industry serves as the primary example of a “perfectly competitive” market structure. In theory, farmers are not able to set prices for their products, and instead “take the price” offered by market buyers. To achieve profitability, a grower works year-round to find ways to reduce costs, such as growing a single crop or renting more land, to take advantage of management expertise and investment in equipment.

    Let’s look at the other side of the profit equation to explore opportunities for Florida’s small- and medium-sized farmers to find ways to improve revenues. We can do this by identifying markets where they have some measure of influence on market prices.

    We describe markets in which firms may offer their products by setting their own prices as “imperfectly competitive.” Why are markets considered imperfect? What does this mean to farmers and buyers? What are the added costs and benefits related to stepping into imperfect markets?

    Successful ventures into imperfect markets are motivated by the farm manager’s decision to intentionally focus on solving the why lurking behind a customer’s buying decision. For example, why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving, and maybe Christmas, but rarely during the rest of the year? Are there a lack of turkeys at other times of the year? Why can my class of college freshman rattle off the names of more than 10 apple varieties, but struggle to identify which nuts are picked off trees versus harvested from the ground? In this article, we highlight the power of marketing management to communicate and deliver added value to customers, which can result in higher farm revenues.

    DEFENSIBLY DIFFERENTIATE

    When farmers find ways to invest in marketing activities, intentionally carve out a targeted segment of buyers, and invest effort in building long-term relationships with customers, they become “defensibly differentiable.” The defensibility results from the ability of the farmer and the customer to nurture this relationship over time. The differentiation is built around the needs and wants unique to the target market and known only to involved parties. Higher profits are driven by tracking the marketing costs and setting prices to capture improved revenues that reflect the value of this shared information.

    To make money, farmers need to track customer data because it serves as the market feedback needed to make decisions to build their defensible market strategy. Prices tell the buyer what the farmer has invested in supplying the food and communicate why the food serves as the best choice to meet the buyer’s needs.

    The consumers’ actions up to and including the decision to buy the food informs the farmer about why that item is their preferred choice. Armed with this data, the farmer discovers the answers to the economic questions of what to produce, for whom, how much and when. This keeps customers returning to the farmer while also attracting others with similar demands. Empowered with market intelligence, farmers can make annual production and marketing decisions to protect their clients from competitors and cultivate their share of the target market.

    Why would a farmer be willing to invest in understanding individual food buyers’ wants and needs and setting their own prices? The food system works the way it does because it has proven to be efficient and effective over time. Keeping up with every person’s tastes and preferences is an impossible task for a single farmer. Identifying a market segment of buyers who are willing and able to spend their food dollars on a specific set of food products requires committed effort and the ability to react quickly in response to dynamic situations and unexpected events.

    As experienced farmers know, acquiring the necessary knowledge of market trends to communicate a “price story” requires time, effort, and perhaps, additional risk to the farm business. Added marketing costs and regulatory requirements beyond the farm gate, which include packing, storage, distribution, shipping, etc., must be factored into the pricing strategy.

    BUILD CONNECTIONS ONLINE
    The Southwest Florida Fresh website helps consumers find local producers.

    The key element that is driving opportunities for farmers to compete in imperfect markets is access to relatively cheap technology. Online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are useful to build connections that shrink the distance between farm and customers. Farmers can use these platforms to position their farm story and attract the attention of key influencers.

    Farmers can also share their relationships with their extended networks, which capitalizes on their investment in these promotional tools. Once a marketing campaign has begun, marketing managers can collect data generated by social media platforms, internet orders and mobile purchasing apps. This can capture real-time market reactions to messages aimed at communicating the value of product offerings.

    The Southwest Florida Fresh (swflfresh.com) website was created by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in response to the devasting impacts of Hurricane Irma (2017), and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, on Florida’s southwestern farmers. The platform reduces distribution complexities and provides a regional brand for local producers, while meeting customer expectations for fresh local produce available at convenient venues. With consistent branding aimed at sharing each individual farm story, customers will continue to recognize and seek out your farm products across market outlets.

    SUMMARY

    Imperfect markets offer farmers improved profit margins, driven by the ability to set prices, based on knowing why people buy. Remember, that first customer costs a lot of money and time to attract, and data gathered along the way is valuable information. Long-term profitability for farmers who defensibly differentiate their food offerings is reliant on building loyalty and trust with customers, finding ways to encourage them to spend more at each visit, and incentivizing them to share their experiences with their friends and family networks.

  • Whitefly Management: Don’t Get Behind in Spray Program

    Whitefly adults feed on a yellow squash seedling.

    Insecticides are available for growers managing whitefly populations. But they need to be applied early in the season when whiteflies are young and immature.

    “Most of the things we use primarily target immatures. That’s where our best control is. We’ve only got a couple of products that are really good on adults,” said Stormy Sparks, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable entomologist. “Most of them, I can’t say for certain, but most of them probably are most efficacious on very little N-star immatures.”

    Managing whiteflies when they’re young is a producer’s best management strategy considering how quickly they will reproduce.

    Whiteflies can grow by a generation in just two weeks in the heat of the summer when temperatures routinely exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The time for these insects to develop is related to temperature. When temperatures are cooler, development takes longer.

    During hot and muggy conditions, which are common in Georgia and Alabama in July and August, development time for whiteflies decreases.

    “Whiteflies are one of those things you don’t want to get behind on,” Sparks said.

    Southeast producers grow cole crops, like broccoli, kale and cabbage, from September through May. Cucurbits grow in the summer, and cotton grows in the early fall. All of these crops serve as host plants for whiteflies.

    Whiteflies can also transmit cucurbit leaf crumple virus and cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus. 

  • Marketing Your Crop: Be Better Prepared

    As vegetable and specialty crop producers near another spring harvest season, marketing their product remains a focal point of their farming operations.

    Adam Rabinowitz, Assistant Professor and Extension Economist at Auburn University, implores producers to be better prepared this year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

    “I really recommend producers think about their marketing and distribution earlier and really at the forefront. That was one of the things that really caught a lot of people off guard (last year) when large institutions started closing down, and restaurants were closing down. It became more and more difficult to market through those channels,” Rabinowitz said.

    “Knowing that, seeing these opportunities, seeing where we are right now, just planning ahead and having contingency plans will be highly recommended.”

    Pandemic’s Impact

    When the pandemic first impacted the United States last March, it shut down the country, in particular, restaurants. A lot of which, southeast producers sell their produce to.

    The lack of a food service option crippled certain sectors of the agriculture industry, including tomatoes. Bob Spencer, President of West Coast Tomato in Palmetto, Florida, said last April that his company farms between 3,500 and 4,000 acres every year. But he was losing 90% of his business. About 70% to 75% of the state’s tomato crop is designated for the food service market.

    Florida farmer Paul Allen said in early April that they had left about 2 million pounds of green beans and 5 million pounds of cabbage in the field just because the demand had diminished.

    As the pandemic continues to be problematic across the country, producers should be better prepared for what to expect and know what worked and what didn’t work.

    Farmers like Bill Brim in Georgia boxed their produce and sold direct to consumers to offset decreased demand. While it did not completely offset the decreased demand, it provided consumers a chance to buy local and raise awareness about buying local especially during a time of crisis. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) was another option that paid off for some producers.

  • Heliae® Agriculture Adds New Seed Treatment Product to Portfolio

    GILBERT, AZ – Heliae® Agriculture is strengthening its product portfolio with the introduction of PhycoTerra® ST, a new seed treatment formulation specifically designed to supercharge the seed microbiome, improving the ability for soil to provide necessary water and nutrients to the developing seed and ultimately improving crop yield. 

    PhycoTerra® ST has a unique formulation that allows growers to tap into the potential of this product with lower user rates without sacrificing performance, providing a more consistent return on investment. The product is aimed at providing a quality carbon source to the seed/microbe interaction, which is the first “real world” point of contact for a seedling. This carbon source drives optimal microbiome around the seed, improving grower results in the field.

    “Our goal at Heliae® Agriculture is to provide growers with the most effective tools to get the job done, and that means offering a seed treatment product that best fits their needs,” said Norm Davy, Chief Revenue Officer at Heliae® Agriculture. “PhycoTerra® ST is an effective product that offers growers a proven increase in yield and return on investment.”

    PhycoTerra® ST has proven results on a variety of crops through testing across the major crop growing regions of the United States and Canada with an average yield increase of 6% and a proven success rate, taking yields and return on investment to the next level. In addition, this new product was designed to work in synergy with PhycoTerra® in-furrow, Heliae® Agriculture’s existing product that provides a balanced food for the soil microbiome to improve plant vigor and crop performance, even under stressed conditions.

    “At Heliae® Agriculture, we believe in delivering solutions to growers to make regenerative agriculture possible today,” said Eric Lichtenheld, President and CEO of Heliae. “We know that success for growers starts with a good seed, and the introduction of PhycoTerra® ST means we can provide that healthy start for plants.”

    To learn more about PhycoTerra® ST, including where to buy, please visit PhycoTerra.com.

  • Blueberry Imports a Complement to Southeastern Producers?

    The Blueberry Coalition of Progress and Health contends that imports of blueberries do not take away markets from southeastern growers but complements their production.

    It made its case to the International Trade Commission (ITC) on Jan. 12 during a virtual hearing and continues to believe there is a big enough “blueberry pie” for all parties to benefit from.

    “That’s why the coalition was formed. We wanted to continue the momentum that the blueberry industry has done over the last few years and the growth and the demand,” said Joe Barsi, President of California Giant, which is a member of the coalition. “The average consumer eats 1.79 pounds of blueberries per year. That’s up significantly. It’s still pales in comparison to a category likes strawberries where consumers eat seven pounds a year of strawberries.

    “We wanted to continue the momentum and we feel like limiting imports will raise prices to the U.S. consumer. It will decrease demand and we’ll lose the momentum the industry has realized. I think the domestic industry has really benefited from the imports in having a consistent supply at retail year-round that’s fairly priced.”

    Section 201 Investigation

    Blueberry imports have been a struggle for growers in the southeast to compete with every year. It was the focus of a Section 201 investigation where the American Blueberry Growers Alliance presented data to the ITC during the Jan. 12 hearing that outlined the imports’ impact on southeast blueberry production, which it believes has resulted in serious injury.

    Statistically Speaking

    According to the American Blueberry Growers Alliance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Marketing Service reported a 68% increase in imported fruit from Mexico from 2019 to 2020, amounting to more than 15 million pounds of fresh blueberries during a 14-week period. Mexico, along with Peru, Chile, Canada and Argentina account for more than 98% of total U.S. imports. Import values increased from $530 million in 2014 to $1.2 billion in 2019.

    Jerome Crosby, Chairman of the American Blueberry Growers Alliance, testified that imports of fresh blueberries have increased 75% over the past five years and is only expected to worsen.

    Supply and Demand

    Barsi believes that the blueberry demand requires the consistent imports that are coming from places like Mexico and Peru.

    “There’s such a demand in the marketplace for fruit, say in the spring window when Florida is producing, there’s such a demand for fruit that Florida and southern California wouldn’t be able to supply the market for the demand that it requires. That’s why we feel like imports have been a really good complement to that,” Barsi said.

    “For someone like California Giant or another company like ourselves, we’re in the market 52 weeks out of the year. To be able to supply our customers with a supply of blueberries year-round, we have to be able to have both, domestic and imports, to be able to supply those requirements.”

    Who Makes Up the Blueberry Coalition of Progress and Health?

    The Blueberry Coalition of Progress and Health is compromised of a broad range of domestic and international producers as well as distributors. Some retailers are on the coalition as well.

    “It was basically formed, we wanted to continue the progress that the blueberry market has continued to have over the last 15 to 20 years. I’ve been involved in blueberries for 15 years, and there’s been significant growth in the marketplace,” Barsi said. “The coalition was formed to be able to provide data to the International Trade Commission on why we think that imports haven’t been a serious injury to the domestic industry.”

    ITC Investigation Timeline

    Important dates

    • January 12th – Public hearing 
    • January 19th – Post-hearing briefs
    • February 3rd – Staff report (internal)
    • February 11th – Injury public vote (scheduled)

    For the remedy phase (if affirmative injury is determined):

    • February 18th – Prehearing briefs
    • February 25th – Public hearing
    • March 3rd – Post-hearing briefs
    • March 19th – Remedy public vote (scheduled)
    • March 29th – Determination, views and report delivered to the President
    • May 27 as the deadline for the President’s decision

    Blueberry Coalition Members

    • Agroberries S.A.
    • Alpine Fresh Inc.
    • Aneberries A.C.
    • Berries Paradise S.A.P.I. de C.V.
    • California Giant Berry Farms
    • Camposol Fresh USA, Inc
    • Driscoll’s, Inc.
    • Family Tree Farms
    • Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
    • Giddings Berries
    • Hortifruit
    • Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce
    • Pro Arandanos
    • United Exports Limited
    • Reiter Affiliated Companies
    • Chilean Blueberry Committee
    • Chilealimentos

  • Identification Key in Managing Stink Bugs in Tomatoes

    Stink bugs are a diverse species that can wreak havoc on Florida’s tomato crop. With a piercing-sucking mouthpart, stink bugs pierce the fruit and suck out fluids. They also secrete enzymes while doing so, which damages the cells right under the skin of the fruit. This leads to little spots forming all over the fruit.

    Picture submitted by Craig Frey/Shows a brown stink bug.

    It is more visible once the fruit ripens, but packinghouses can identify it on green fruit as well. Ultimately, the fruit is unmarketable for producers to sell.

    But for farmers, it is important to identify what stink bug species are on their crop. Some are predators, others are minor pests, while a few can cause major economic loss. Life cycles in tomatoes can range from five to 10 weeks, which is another important reason for proper identification.

    “If it’s a 5-week life cycle versus a 10-week life cycle, a producer will have to spray twice as a frequently. It’s therefore critically important to know what species it is so we can know what their life cycle is and make sure our management fits accordingly,” said Craig Frey, University of Florida/IFAS Hendry County Extension Director.

    Two Most Problematic Species

    The two species tomato producers must contend with the most are the brown stink bug, Euschistus servus, and southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula.

    “It was interesting to see that what I found in my master’s research in 2016-2017 correlated with what Dr. Amanda Hodges has seen in her traps over the last couple of years of surveying. There appears to be higher numbers of those two species than anything else,” Frey said.

    Proper identification is key, but it is also essential to start management early and avoid playing catch-up.

    Frey said stink bugs are more of an issue for grape tomatoes. Producers harvest them more frequently, and due to the required intervals between pesticide application and harvest, it is harder to find time to make an appropriate chemical application and keep the pest in check.

  • Greenhouse Lettuce Production Has Risks, Rewards

    Greenhouse lettuce production has its risks and rewards in Alabama. Jeremy Pickens, Alabama Assistant Extension Professor in Horticulture at Auburn University, cautions producers to do their homework before diving headfirst into this potentially rewarding venture.

    “It’s a considerable amount of expense compared to field production. You just really need to know what you’re doing before you commit to it,” Pickens said. “The benefits of growing in a greenhouse are, you can turn out a crop faster. It’s going to be a high-quality crop. In many cases, there’s less pesticide use. But the downside is, it costs more money to grow indoors.”

    Greenhouse Expenses

    It is expensive just to build a greenhouse and operate it year-round. Pickens estimates to build and own a greenhouse can cost producers anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 depending on how many bells and whistles you want to accessorize the greenhouse with. Labor is a major expense as well. Labor can cost as much as 28 cents per head of lettuce.

    Producers must also consider competition from states out west. California and Arizona account for 95% of all the lettuce produced in the U.S.

    “It is a high-quality product and produced very inexpensively and can get shipped across the country in very little time. It is most often for chefs and be available in a bag, chopped product. It’s already triple rinsed, they don’t have to do anything with it but open the bag and go,” Pickens said. “I don’t think you need to compete head-to-head with those guys because you’re going to lose. They can grow it so much cheaper than we can just because of their great climate and economy of scale.”

    Marketing

    Those Alabama producers who follow through on lettuce production need to market their crop as a premium product if they are to be successful. They are selling local, fresh and flavor.

    “There is a certain size pie, and you’re not going to make the pie any bigger. There’s a chance you could, but you’re trying to get a piece of it by maybe convincing a chef to switch over to your product. There are some opportunities in some of the more urban areas with these CSAs coming along for lettuce to make its way into a box. As far as selling it as a farmer’s market, it’s like anything, it’s got its risks. I don’t want to say there’s not an upside to it, but I wouldn’t go chasing for gold with it,” Pickens said.

  • Slow Start for Georgia Vidalia Onions

    File photo shows a bunch of Vidalia onions.

    It has been a tale of two winters for Georgia Vidalia onion producers. Last year’s abnormally mild winter was highlighted by warmer temperatures. This season has been characterized by wetter conditions and cooler temperatures.

    It has impacted the growth of the state’s onion crop so far this season, says Chris Tyson, University of Georgia Extension Area Onion Agent at the Vidalia Onion & Vegetable Research Center in Lyons, Georgia.

    “We had some warm weather in December and January last year and it really got the onions up jumping. This year they’re just off to a much slower start. That’s okay. It’s not a problem. It’s just been a cool, cold, slow start. The growth has just been really slow to begin with,” Tyson said.

    Slow Start, Just Not a Bad Start

    A slow start is not necessarily a bad thing either for onion producers.

    “The sooner the onions get big and get growing, the sooner we have to fight disease and manage fertility. I think recent years have been uncharacteristically warmer, above average; we almost have gotten used to that the last few years. But this year it may be more of an average year,” Tyson said. “You talk to these Vidalia onion growers and they’ll tell you about years when we’ve had really cold weather and we’ve had hard freezes. It’s caused problems in the past. We haven’t seen any extremes like that (this year).

    “We don’t want to get the onions too big and have a bad freeze or something like that. When they get big like that, the freeze damage can hurt them worse.”

    Sufficient Moisture

    Moisture is not a problem either for Georgia onion farmers. According to the US Drought Monitor, only a few coastal counties and some in the southwestern part of the state are abnormally dry. Most of the state got saturated during the New Year’s Holiday weekend.

    “A lot of places in the onion belt got 3 to 5 inches. In this time of the year when it’s cold and not much evaporation, it makes things really wet and takes a while to dry off,” Tyson said.

    “As far as moisture goes for the onions, we feel like we’re in pretty good shape right now.”

  • Enterprise Planning Budgets for Growers

    © Wayne Smith

    By Kimberly L. Morgan and Tara Wade

    Wanna go fishin’? Have you ever wondered why we don’t ask who wants to go catching fish?

    Entrepreneurial adventures in farming may be compared to the distinction between fishing and catching any fish at all, regardless of hours spent throwing out a line, varying techniques, bait types, pole qualities and past experiences at previously abundant locales. Similarly, the farm financial planning process tends to be viewed as murky and mysterious. As a result, financial planning is often underutilized and misinterpreted. This is especially true when farmers are looking to make changes in existing operations or venturing into new enterprises.

    While financial documentation is viewed as a tedious task, it is the bedrock of any decision about farming.  Further, any future financial decisions should be made in tandem with production, marketing, legal, regulatory and human resource management to ensure all departments are considered prior to the investment.

    Business risks are defined as “uncertainty that matters.” This article highlights key aspects of the enterprise budget useful to address and mitigate the uncertainties that are inherent to entrepreneurial pursuit of farming for profits.

    Enterprise budgets are long-run planning tools. They differ from other budgets, such as income and cash flow statements, balance sheets and owners’ equity statements, which are used to study past farm financial performance. Enterprise budgets give farmers the numbers needed to make timely allocations of resources (land, labor and capital) specific to growing conditions that capture the feasible production and marketing costs and revenues.

    USEFUL FEATURES

    A key benefit to the enterprise budget is the ability to assess the opportunity costs, captured as interest paid on operating costs. Economic opportunity cost measures the entrepreneurial value of the enterprise by calculating what farmers must give up to get what they want the most.

    One alternative to borrowing annual operating capital and paying a 6 percent interest rate on the loan is to invest those dollars and earn a 6 percent return. The interest rate on the operating loan is charged to the enterprise in the budget to ensure the farmer is recovering this cost. Knowing what they are giving up allows farmers to make informed decisions on whether to choose a new enterprise.

    The University of Florida provides online tools to help growers with budgets.

    The enterprise budget contains another valuable risk mitigation tool: It allows farmers to examine whether they can stretch their resources into a new venture. Fixed costs, also described as ownership costs, represent long-term expenses that must be paid every year regardless of what commodity is produced or if any are produced at all. A fixed-cost charge in the form of returns to overhead and farm management is represented by a percentage of total operating costs. This percentage captures returns to the farmer’s own long-term investment of their expertise and efforts into this enterprise. Economics tells us there is no such thing as a free lunch, and this is the only financial tool that reminds the farmer to make sure any new activity results in a paycheck to cover their own involvement with the enterprise.

    A motivating factor for tackling a new enterprise is the desire to find new ways to use existing resources that are costing the business money yet sit idle all or part of a year, such as equipment, buildings or irrigation systems. The enterprise planning tool allows a farmer to adjust the variable (operating) and fixed (ownership) cost numbers to represent their existing resources and expenses. This can easily be done by utilizing information/numbers from the farm’s historical financial statements.

    Another valuable feature of the enterprise budget arises when farmers choose to spend time studying and learning how to utilize the tool to plan for future profits. Specifically, annual updates to the budgets capture information related to changes in input prices and/or technology.

    Examples of changes to input prices important to the farm budget are fuel or fertilizer costs resulting from adjustments in trade, labor or regulatory policies. Similarly, changes in technology such as new equipment features and/or availability can significantly impact overhead/fixed costs. Moreover, predicted yields may be changed to allow for varying physical conditions across the state, such as soil health and weather patterns that are specific to a farm location. Estimated costs of materials may be adjusted to capture savings from purchasing inputs in bulk for use across other farm activities or sharing packing and harvesting costs through cooperative arrangements.

    Estimated revenues are based on average market prices and can be altered to accurately identify prices received by an individual farmer year over year at each market outlet. This includes sales made through a broker, at a roadside stand or online farmers’ market, or via direct marketing connections like restaurants or retailers.

    From the viewpoint of an economist, assessing benefits resulting from the investment in a new enterprise extends beyond the explicit gains in profit. Farmers are often motivated by the implicit gains in managing business risks that may be achieved when adding a new enterprise.

    For example, the ability to employ labor year-round may ensure continued access to staff. This reduces the time and stressors related to attracting and training new people repeatedly, while building trusting relationships between owners and employees. This extends to finding ways for the next generation to stay on the farm through expansion into enterprises that provide the foundation for a long-term career in the family business.

    INTERNET RESOURCE

    To help organize the math behind these economic choices, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Resources (UF/IFAS) provides enterprise budgets for a variety of Florida-grown commodities. These decision tools are built collaboratively with economists, horticulturists and farmers who share lifetimes of experience from the fields to provide a baseline of inputs and outputs for an operation.

    Visit fred.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/commodity-production-budgets for more information and to access the UF/IFAS Commodity Production Budgets. These tools will help you assess your farm’s readiness to capture your next entrepreneurial field of green. Available enterprise budgets include potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, green peppers, watermelons, sweet corn, cabbage, tropical fruit, beef cattle and forages, tropical ornamentals, tropical vegetables, citrus and cucumbers.

  • Sneak Peek: February 2021 VSCNews Magazine

    By Ashley Robinson

    The February issue of VSCNews Magazine explores a variety of topics, including America’s changing farming landscape, onion disease management tips, nematode management strategies and tools for tomato production.

    Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service conducts a census. The 2017 Census of Agriculture captured in numbers what we see happening all around us: farming is changing. Sarah Bostick, a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) sustainable agriculture Extension agent in Sarasota, Florida, shares how the industry is working to cultivate the next generation of farmers.

    Southeastern Georgia’s climate is conducive to many Vidalia onion diseases. Bhabesh Dutta, an associate professor and Extension vegetable disease specialist at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Tifton talks about disease seasonality and management strategies.

    Johan Desaeger, an assistant professor for UF/IFAS, is featured in the Organic Corner. According to Desaeger, cover crops are one of the more practical options for nematode management. He discusses various cover crops and their benefits.

    Additonally, Abolfazl Hajihassani, an assistant professor and Extension specialist at UGA, provides readers with tools to solve tomato pathogen issues.

    Finally, readers will get an inside look at the recent virtual Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference from AgNet Media’s senior multimedia journalist Clint Thompson. The 25th annual event provided a unique educational experience, as the event was moved to an online format amid COVID-19 concerns. Thompson shares some brief summaries from a few of the educational sessions offered during this year’s event.

    If you would like to receive future issues of VSCNews magazine, click here.