Vegetable and sugarcane grower John Hundley of North Palm Beach,Fla., has been selected as the 2010 state winner of the SwisherSweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

Row crop farmer Joe Nichols of Cadiz, Ky.,has been selected as the 2010 state winner ofthe Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeast-ern Farmer of the Year award.

Row crop and beef cattle farmer Wallick Hardingof Jetersville, Va., has been selected as the 2010state winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt ExpoSoutheastern Farmer of the Year award.

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MOULTRIE OBSERVER

Friday, September 24, 2010 The Moultrie Observer 1C

The Observer salutes

AGRICULTURE

StateFarmers ofthe Year Vidalia onion grower Robert Dasher of Glennville, Ga., has

been selected as the 2010 state winner of the SwisherSweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

Row crop farmer Shep Morris of Shorter, Ala.,has been selected as the 2010 state winner ofthe Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeast-ern Farmer of the Year award.

Tobacco farmer Marty Easler of Greeleyville,S.C., has been selected as the 2010 statewinner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt ExpoSoutheastern Farmer of the Year award.

Diversified farmer Bo Stone of Rowland, N.C.,has been selected as the 2010 state winner ofthe Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeast-ern Farmer of the Year award.

Dairy farmer Bill Haak of Gentry, Ark., hasbeen selected as the 2010 state winner ofthe Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo South-eastern Farmer of the Year award.

Row crop and beef cattle farmer Brad Black ofVonore, Tenn., has been selected as the 2010state winner of the Swisher Sweets/SunbeltExpo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

Plant nursery owner and horticulturist Dan Batsonof Perkinston, Miss., has been selected as the2010 state winner of the Swisher Sweets/SunbeltExpo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

By David E. StooksburyUniversity of Georgia

Mild to moderatedrought conditions haveexpanded over the pastmonth to include much ofwest and south Georgia.With temperatures remain-ing above normal and rain-fall below normal, soilscontinue to dry across theentire state.

Daytime high tempera-tures through the middleof September have gener-ally been in the 90s acrossthe piedmont and coastalplain. Rainfall for the pastmonth has been between50 percent and 70 percentof normal for most of thestate. The exceptions arenortheast Georgia and thelower Savannah River val-ley, where rainfall has beenslightly above normal.Over the past two weeks,rainfall has been less thanhalf of normal across theentire state.

Mild to moderatedrought conditions exist incounties south and west of

Haralson, Paulding, Dou-glas, Carroll, Harris,Troup, Muscogee, Chatta-hoochee, Marion, Schley,Sumter, Crisp, Wilcox,Telfair, Jeff Davis, Ap-pling, Wayne and McIntoshcounties, inclusive.

Mild drought conditionsalso exist in Lincoln,Wilkes and Elbert coun-ties. The remainder of thestate is classified as abnor-mally dry.

Currently, lack of soilmoisture is the majordrought impact. Across thesouthern half of the

coastal plain, soil moistureis running at the fifth per-centile. That means that 95out of 100 years we wouldexpect the soils to be wet-ter than they currently arein this region.

DRY SOIL, MIXED BLESSINGThe soil dryness has

been a mixed blessing forfarmers. For crops that aremature, this has made har-vesting easier. The excep-tion is peanuts. Producersare irrigating fields so thatpeanuts can be dug, or har-vested from the ground.

Many crops have notreached maturity and stillneed some moisture.

Streams are droppingacross the state. In south-west Georgia, stream flowsare near the 10th per-centile. At that percentilewe expect more water inthe streams 90 out of 100years. In south-centralGeorgia, the Little Rivernear Adel and the Withla-coochee River near Quit-man are at record lowflows for the middle ofSeptember.

Across northwest Geor-gia, stream flows are alsonear the 10th percentile.Conditions across north-east Georgia are marginal-ly better with stream flowsgenerally around the 20thpercentile, which meansthe streams would havemore water flow 80 out of100 years.

WILDFIRE RISK

As the dryness worsensover the next few weeks,wildfire danger will in-crease. Currently, wildfiredanger across the state israted from high to ex-treme. Anyone involved inoutside activities needs tobe very cautious. Becauseof the dryness, any fire, re-gardless of how small, canquickly get out of control.Contact the GeorgiaForestry Commission forspecific details concerningwildfire risk and outdoorburn permits and require-ments.

Dryness across the stateis expected to increaseover the next severalweeks unless Georgia re-ceives beneficial rainsfrom one or more tropicaldisturbances, such as atropical storm or hurri-cane.

Through the winter, the

dryness may increase. Theocean-atmosphere systemhas switched to a La Niñapattern. The La Niña pat-tern is associated with dry,warm winters across muchof the Southeast. Thismeans that we may haveminimal recharge of thehydrologic system thiswinter. This increases theprobability of widespreadand significant drought fornext year. It is too early totell exactly how the LaNiña pattern will impactGeorgia, but we need to beaware of the possibleshort-term tropical im-pacts and the long-termdrought impacts.

Up-to-date informationon dry conditions acrossGeorgia can be found atwww.georgiadrought.org.Updated weather condi-tions can be found atwww.georgiaweather.net.

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2C The Moultrie Observer SALUTETOAGRICULTURE Friday, September 24, 2010

SGB LOAN OFFICERS

Submitted photoBo Williams, Danny Singley and Ross Dekle, commercial and agricultural lenders at South-west Georgia Bank, have taken a stand to provide their customers with the best financialproducts available. Call them at 985-1120 to discuss your financial needs.

DOERUN GIN

Doerun Gin Company, Inc located at 6522 Highway 133 North in Doerun is committed toproviding the cotton producer with the best ginning experience available. They continuouslystrive to find ways to improve the ginning process and increase the producers’ net return.If you would like to discuss what Doerun Gin Company, Inc. could do for you, please callStacy Thaggard, General Manager at (229) 782-5278.

Drought conditions expand into west, south GeorgiaCurrently, lack of soil moisture is the

major drought impact. Across thesouthern half of the coastal plain, soilmoisture is running at the fifth per-centile. That means that 95 out of 100years we would expect the soils to bewetter than they currently are in thisregion.

Goat meatdemandincreasingin GeorgiaBy Stephanie Schupska

University of Georgia

A boom in demand andan economic need to diver-sify has many Georgianslooking to produce goatmeat. To meet the informa-tional need, University ofGeorgia Cooperative Exten-sion recently graduated itsfirst ever class of MasterGoat Farmers.

Seventy-five people,mostly from northeastGeorgia, attended the pro-gram in Athens, Ga., Orga-nizers expected 35 to 40 par-ticipants.

“I think now we’re goingto get a lot more requestsfor information,” saidBanks County Extensioncoordinator Bob Waldorf,“because a lot of peoplefound out about the MasterGoat Farmers program lateand realized we are provid-ing education on it.”

Elbert County Exten-sion coordinator Clay Tal-ton had 13 farmers travel 45minutes from Elberton toAthens for the 6-week pro-gram. A Coweta Countyfarmer traveled two hourseach way.

Goat farming “is a rela-tively new farming systemfor a lot of people who arehere,” Talton said. He usedthe meetings as a way togauge the need in his coun-ty for more goat productioneducation.

“The clientele who needthis information are defi-nitely there,” he said.

The Master GoatFarmer program coveredbasic information on nutri-tion, goat selection, repro-duction, birthing, predatorcontrol, health, diseases,carcass evaluation and

Please see MEAT, Page 3C

By Sharon DowdyUniversity of Georgia

Just shy of a year fromwhen it was first spottedin northeast Georgia, theinsect now commonlycalled the “kudzu bug”continues to mystifyhomeowners and agricul-tural researchers.

A native of India andChina, the bean plataspid(Megacopta cribraria) ispea-sized and brown witha broad posterior.

A legume-eater, its fa-vorite menu items includeboth the famous weedkudzu and soybeans, acrop grown in Georgia forits oil.

OVERWINTERS AROUND HOMESAlso commonly called

lablab bug and globularstink bug, the newcomerreleases a chemical - simi-lar to the stink bug - whenthreatened. As kudzu iskilled by fall frost, it maysoon overwinter in droves

around homes, somethingthe more-common Asianlady beetle does.

“The difference is thebean plataspid is far morenumerous than the ladybug,” said Wayne Gardner,an entomologist with theUniversity of Georgia Col-lege of Agricultural andEnvironmental Sciences.

It likes to congregateon the sides of light-col-ored homes and vehicles,Gardner said. This time ofyear, the insects are mostactive in the afternoonwhen it’s warm. Home-owners who live nearkudzu patches can expectto see the kudzu bug asthe weather turns cooler.

SPREADING ACROSS THE SOUTHGardner is one of a

team of CAES scientistsworking to identify the in-sect’s habits (other thanmunching on kudzu) anddetermine whether it willwreak havoc on Georgia’ssoybean crop.

Last fall, the bug wasreported in Barrow,Clarke, Greene, Gwinnett,Hall, Jackson, Oconee andWalton counties. It cannow be found in 68 coun-ties as far south as DoolyCounty. “We expect to seeit in additional countiesthis year before winter

temperatures stop itsspread for this growingseason,” Gardner said.

He’s also seen the pestin the Carolinas and ex-pects it to arrive in Alaba-ma and Tennessee soon.

UGA entomologist Dan

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Friday, September 24, 2010 SALUTETOAGRICULTURE The Moultrie Observer 3C

DEMOTT TRACTOR

DeMott Tractor Company, 1659 Sylvester Highway in Moultrie, can meet all of your agricul-ture needs. DeMott offers Case IH, Zimmatic, AGCO Massey Ferguson and Mahindra prod-ucts, as well as parts and service. Tal Etheredge & Terry DeMott are ready to assist you,contact them at (229)985-5006.

SUTTON SYSTEM SALES

Sutton System Sales, Inc., located at 184 South Baker St. in Ellenton, offers a complete line ofChevron engineered products for the farm. Chevron has engineered products that deliverlong-term value to farmers, including Chevron Delo motor oils and coolants and Chevron All-Weather THF, which achieves a level of performance unique to tractor hydraulic fluids. SuttonSystem Sales is a complete provider for lubricants for farming operations. Call 324-3141 formore information.

marketing. The main emphasis was on goat meat produc-tion, but they also briefly covered dairy goats.

Jasper County Extension agent Lucy Ray assisted withthe meetings so that she could better help goat farmers inher county.

“The goat meat market went down when the economytanked,” she said, “but it seems to be coming back fairlystrong. I had a producer tell me that it’s as strong now asit ever was.”

Goat meat production in Georgia is increasing thanksto the influx of people from Hispanic and Caribbeancountries and those of Muslim faith. Goats were a $16.4million business in 2009, almost $10 million more than in2001.

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group inGeorgia, said UGA Extension livestock economist CurtLacy, who taught the group about marketing. Eight per-cent of people in Georgia are now Hispanic or of Hispan-ic decent. Muslims make up 2.1 percent of the state’s pop-ulation, and most of them are African-Americans.

“Everybody in the world eats goats except us,” saidWashington County Extension coordinator Sidney Law.“In Atlanta, Ga., 2,500 goats are eaten weekly by some-body.”

Producers only need between 5 and15 acres to raisegoats, Lacy said. He added that the increase in goat farm-ing is partly due to the “whole movement of going back tosimpler, smaller farms, old-school type of food and a re-newal and interest in all different types of foods.”

“And when you watch Food Network and see peoplemention goat meat or goat cheese, there’s suddenly an in-terest there,” Lacy said.

Monroe County goat farmer Jerry Norton got into thebusiness one goat at a time.

“We had a horse and wanted a goat to be its friend,” hesaid, after saying his granddaughters and daughter initi-ated the goat purchases. One goat led to another. Now heand his wife have 15.

“The two-year-old and eight-year-old like to say that‘Poppy’s in the goat business,’” said Norton, who’s a re-tired insurance adjuster. “We’ve had good times and bad.Now they’re all like dogs running around. They want toget in the golf cart with me, and we take them on walksin the evening.”

Continued from Page 2C

Meat One year later, kudzu bugspreads across the state

Please see BUG, Page 4C

Almost every year inlate summer, caterpillarsinvade turfgrass acrossGeorgia. Damage to estab-lished turf is mostly aes-thetic, but newly plantedsod or sprigged areas canbe severely damaged oreven killed.

Several caterpillars candamage turfgrass, but inlate summer most of theproblems are caused by fallarmyworms. Their favoriteturf to feed upon isbermudagrass.

EGGS HATCH IN JUST DAYSAdult armyworm moths

are active at night. Fe-males lay eggs in masses of50 to several hundred. Eggshatch in a few days, andthe young larvae begin tofeed on leaf tissue. As theworms grow, they consumeentire leaves of grass.

Armyworms are mostactive early and late in theday, spending the hotterhours down near the soilin the shade. Larvae feed

for 2 to 3 weeks before pu-pating in the soil.

Moths emerge 10 to 14

days later. The entire life

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4C The Moultrie Observer SALUTETOAGRICULTURE Friday, September 24, 2010

offers a complete line of

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LAZARUS DEPARTMENT STORE

Jane Hamm/The Moultrie ObserverLazarus Department Store, locally owned and operated by Steve Lazarus at 101 First St. S.E.offers outdoor apparel and boots for the agri-businessman. ‘Where you save everyday’ is theslogan of Lazarus, which carries top-of-the-line products, such as Danmar, Georgia Boot,Wolverine, Red Wing, LaCrosse, Irish Setter and Rocky. The store has a gigantic selection ofwork boots, hunting and snake boots and rubber boots.

SOUTHERN TRACTOR

Southern Tractor and Outdoors, located at 1205 Veterans Parkway North, Moultrie, GA, isthe south’s Premier Kubota dealership. They offer a wide selection of Kubota utility andfarm tractors; Kubota, Bobcat and Landpride. Professional and residential lawn and garenequipment as well as Kawasaki and Kubota utility vehicles. Pictured from left are KeithBurnham, sales and Keith Gay, sales.

Suiter believes the bug arrived here byaccident.

“We do have the world’s busiest air-port here (in Georgia), but we’ll neverknow how the bug first got here,” Suitersaid. “When it found kudzu here, it founda food source, and it doesn’t have any nat-ural enemies here that we are aware of.”

It’s an “invasive species feeding on aninvasive species,” he said.

STUDYING ITS HABITS, BIOLOGYOn the UGA campus in Griffin, Ga.,

Gardner and his staff are collecting bugsfrom various sites across the state andraising them in small plastic arenas con-taining kudzu leaves.

“In our labs, we’re trying to determineif they die from anything naturally,”Gardner said.

Introduced to the U.S. in 1876 fromJapan, kudzu was planted in the 1930s tocontrol soil erosion. It now tops the na-tion’s invasive species list. The re-searchers have no idea what the insect’slong-term impact on kudzu will be.

“It eats kudzu, which is good. But italso stinks and gets on homes, which isbad,” Gardner said. “And the ominous

threat is that it eats soybeans and otherlegume crops.”

HOW AND WHETHER TO CONTROLIn India and China, manually remov-

ing them is the most common way to con-trol kudzu bugs. UGA scientists alsowant to determine how to control thepest around homes and whether or not tocontrol it on agricultural crops.

“In soybeans right now, they are therein very high numbers in some locations,”said Phillip Roberts, a CAES entomolo-gist studying the bug’s effect on agricul-ture.

Roberts has studies in fields to deter-mine whether it’s more economical totreat the pest or leave fields untreated.

“It’s a true bug, but with needle-likemouthparts,” he said. “It feeds on stems,sap, leaves and petioles. The one observa-tion we have made is it does not appear tofeed on the developing pods, thank good-ness.”

Each year, Georgia farmers plantabout 350,000 acres of soybeans, whichare primarily crushed for the cooking oil.Livestock animals are fed the leftovermeal.

Continued from Page 3C

Bug

Armyworms march across Georgia lawns

Please see LAWNS, Page 5C

UGA Tifton lab sleuths plant virusesBy Brad Haire

University of Georgia

If a disease outbreak ina field could be considereda crime scene, then the“CSI” lab for such viralsuspects is on the Universi-ty of Georgia campus inTifton, Ga., where samplescollected from the sceneare sent and tested. Theculprits are always identi-fied.

“Every crop we put infields is susceptible tomany viruses in Georgia,”said Stephen Mullis, a re-search professional withthe UGA College of Agri-cultural and Environmen-tal Sciences, who overseesthe viral lab. “And what wedo here in the lab is deter-mine what virus is present

and at what levels.”Georgia’s hot, humid

environment is good forgrowing many crops, virtu-ally year-round. Unfortu-nately, that same weatheris perfect for plant dis-eases, too.

Over the past decadealone, viruses have costfarmers hundreds of mil-lions of dollars in damageor in control measures.And no disease has causedmore problems than thetomato spotted wilt virus,the disease that promptedthe viral lab’s creation.

TSWV hit Georgia inthe mid-1980s. By the ‘90s,it was at epidemic levels,particularly on peanut andtobacco plants, said AlexCsinos, a CAES plantpathologist.

“Necessity is the moth-er of invention,” Csinossaid. “We had a seriousoutbreak of tomato spottedwilt virus in the early ‘90s.Since it was a new virusand no one else was doingany kind of work on thatparticular virus, we decid-ed for us to save some ofour crops from the destruc-tion from this virus weneeded to start our ownlaboratory on site to takecare of the needs and re-quirements of the re-searchers that were study-ing the disease.”

The lab was establishedin Tifton, where samplescould be efficiently han-dled in the heart of thestate’s row-crop production

Please see LAB, Page 5C

area. Primary funding toget the lab started camefrom Phillip Morris Interna-tional and the Georgia To-bacco Commission.One sample is typically aleaf, stem or whole plantplaced in a zip-close bag.

Samples mostly come fromresearch plots, where scien-tists conduct tests to learnmore about viruses and dis-cover ways farmers cantreat or prevent them. “On anormal day, we run a fewhundred samples.And in any given year werun 60,000 to 70,000 samplesthrough this lab,” Mullissaid.

The lab mostly serves thestate’s tobacco industry,

which has declined in recentyears due to many farmersgetting out of the businessafter the governmentdropped its depression-eraquota system. Farmers nowcontract their crops directlywith tobacco companies, andprofit margins are tight, saidFred Wetherington, a tobac-co farmer in Lowndes Coun-ty near the Florida line.Staying ahead of diseases isa major and costly problem.

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Friday, September 24, 2010 SALUTETOAGRICULTURE The Moultrie Observer 5C

Give us a call or stop by to discuss your 2010

cotton crop needs.

Stacy Thaggard General M anager

Judy C. Morris Office M anager

Dickey Thaggard Representative

Randy Bryant Representative

Ray Battles Gin S uperintendent

6533 Hwy. 133 NorthP.O. Box 550

Doerun, GA 31744

229-782-5278 Phone

229-782-7402 Fax

“Serving South Georgia’s Finest

Cotton P roducers” www.doerungin.com

621368swM

Laurie Floyd/The Moultrie ObserverCome see John Peters at AgGeorgia Farm Credit for all your agricultural financing needs, lo-cated at 22 Fifth Ave. S.E. in Moultrie, or call 985-3893.

AGGEORGIA FARM CREDIT

SOUTHERN STATES

Southern States, located at 280 West Bypass, is your complete source for fertilizer, seed,chemicals and liquid supplements. For more information go to the company web site atsouthernstates.com or call Jason Heard at 985-4593 for more information.

COLONY BANK

Located at 621 Veterans Parkway North in Moultrie, Colony Bank features services includinge-checking, money markets, certificates of deposit, savings accounts, 24 hour ATMs andmore, including agricultural loans. Their flexibility of services and pricing are evident in thepersonal touch approach provided by experienced Lending Teams. Their Agricultural LoanProgram includes the ability to provide Farm Service Agency (FSA) guaranteed loans for thepurpose of purchasing land, livestock, equipment, feed, seed and supplies, constructing build-ings or making farm improvements. John W. Gandy, President, leads the staff which is readyto assist residents with all their banking needs. For more information, contact a bank repre-sentative today at (229) 985-1380.

Continued from Page 4C

Lawns

Continued from Page 4C

Lab

cycle -- from egg to adultmoth -- takes about 28 daysin the warm weather ofAugust and September.

Weather conditions fuelthe development of army-worms, said University ofGeorgia Assistant StateClimatologist Pam Knox.Some UGA CooperativeExtension agents reportthis seaso as the worstthey have seen in 25 years,she said.

"They devastate pas-tures and hayfields in lo-cations across the state,"Knox said.

DO THE SOAP TEST

To see if worms arepresent, perform this sim-ple test: Pour soapy wateron the grass (one-halfounce of dishwashingsoap per gallon of water).If the worms are present,they will quickly surface.

Controlling army-worms and other turfcaterpillars is relativelysimple once the problem isidentified. The old standbycarbaryl (Sevin) stillworks well, as do all thepyrethroids (pyrethroidsare those active ingredi-ents listed on a label thatend in “-thrin”).

If the worms are de-

tected while they are stillsmall, Dipel or otherBacillus thurengiensis-based products providegood control.

TREAT AT NIGHTSince armyworms are

most active late in the dayand at night, applicationsshould be made as late inthe evening as possible. Itis not necessary to waterafter application, but anapplication rate of 20 to 25gallons of solution peracre as a minimum willensure good coverage. Donot cut the grass for 1 to 3days after application.

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6C The Moultrie Observer SALUTETOAGRICULTURE Friday, September 24, 2010

ELLENTON AG SERVICE

Contact Ellenton Ag Services, Inc., located at 173 Baker St. in Ellenton, for all your farm sup-plement needs. Ellenton Ag Services offers liquid, homogenized and dry blend fertilizers, liq-uid nitrogen, lime, land plaster, chemicals, seed and sprayer parts. Ellenton Ag Services alsooffers grid soil sampling, variable rate and standard spreading services and liquid side dress-ing. They also have pull spreaders and killebrews available. Call Charlie Brown, Mike Tillmanor Carlton Perry today at 324-2200.

CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES

Crop Production Services, with locations at 257 West Bypass in Moultrie and 218 SouthChurch St. in Doerun, offers a complete line of fertilizers for the local farmer. Products includeliquid fertilizers, dry-blended fertilizers and Rainbow fertilizers. Call Mark Bennett at 782-5208at the Doerun facility or David Register at 985-4520 at the Moultrie location for any of your