Agriculture: Living off the land
Agriculture is a major business in Walker County with farms occupying 30 percent of the county’s land, but admittedly area farmers were challenged by an unusually wet year in 2018 that in many cases delayed and hindered both planting and harvesting.
The county continues its tradition as an agricultural community, with more than 81,000 acres in farmland and a farm gate value for agricultural products of over $90 million. Some of the top agricultural products in the area are livestock, poultry, corn, muscadines, wheat, and rye.
The county is home to more than 600 farms whose leading products are beef cattle, dairy cattle, poultry, and row crops. In 2017, Walker County was home to 20,000 heads of cattle, which decreased by a small fraction in 2018 to 19,500. Based on patterns of previous years, it is evident that the number will stay within that range in 2019. Also, last year, there were 79,706 acres of farmland in the county and 24,851 acres of harvested crop land.
In addition to row crops and livestock, the county is home to numerous chicken farmers. Chickens, eggs, and chicken waste, which is very popular with Walker County farmers as a very effective and relatively inexpensive fertilizer, all add to the economic impact of agriculture in the county.
In fact, poultry production accounts for over half of Georgia’s total agricultural output, and is a vital component of Georgia’s economy. On an average day Georgia produces 26 million pounds of chicken and 9.2 million eggs. Georgia produces more broiler chickens than any state in the nation and has been declared the “Poultry Capital of the World.”
One problem area farmers faced with 2018’s record rainfall was drowned crops. Walker County is known for the high yield of row crops, and while rain is usually seen as a benefit to crops and fields, if the rainfall is much higher than average, it can lead to drowned crops and lower yields. This can be agriculturally devastating.
Post-hurricane, rainfall had hit more than 140% of normal and runoff more than 200% of normal. By the end of the year, Northwest Georgia and the Tennessee River Valley hit a record, at 67.01 inches of rain. For Georgia overall, 2018 was the second wettest year on record, with 20 inches above the average. In some areas of Walker County, farmers experienced 70-80 inches of rain.
In the coming year, there are goals set to reverse some of the damage. Georgia Farm Bureau President Gerald Long, speaking at the Jan. 22 meeting in Macon, said the crop damage from Hurricane Michael was the worst he’s experienced. Long, who is from Decatur County, noted that one cotton gin in southwest Georgia was expecting to handle 180,000 bales but will wind up ginning approximately 50,000 bales. Evidently, there are farmers who were still picking cotton in January. It is unusual for cotton to still be picked in the beginning of the following year.
“There’s a lot of things going on right now in the ag sector,” said UGA Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics Adam Rabinowitz. “You really do hope at times you can pull something out of a hat that says this is the golden egg or the rabbit. The situation is a little rough.”
Area Georgia farmers could benefit from a number of bills passed in the 2018 session of the Georgia General Assembly, which concluded on March 30. Among them are protections for livestock produc- ers, a clarification of rules for the Conservation Use Value Assessment (CUVA), measures to improve oversight of the Georgia Agricultural Tax Exemption (GATE) and setting statutory responsibilities for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division (EPD).
Across the state, cotton, peanut, and soy producers are all facing trade issues with no idea as to how long it will last. Cotton exports are decreasing due to the increasing strength of the U.S. dollar. After record peanut production in 2017, a reduction in acreage in 2018 pushed production down. The demand has increased steadily.
“We need to look for opportunities to move those peanuts,” Rabinowitz said. Prices near $425 per ton are possible for the 2019 peanut crop. UGA forecast net peanut return of $270 per irrigated acre and $90 per non-irrigated acre, minus land rent. Rabinowitz noted that the exports of U.S. corn would depend on corn crops produced in South America and trade between those countries and China. Corn acreage will likely increase in 2019 because of lower soybean prices relative to corn. Soybean producers are likely to decrease acreage in 2019 due to lower prices. Soybeans have been under pressure related to U.S. trade conflict with China, which has resulted in diminished exports and increased stocks. Soybeans are highly dependent on China, which has decreased its use of soybeans in feeding its hogs.
Overall, the main challenge facing are farmers and those around the state was rain, breaking records and subsequently affecting crops. Most of the agricultural phenomena was due to Hurricane Michael, which, meteorologically speaking, had the third lowest pressure reading of any storm to hit the United States mainland. Since it made landfall as a category 4 hurricane, it was clear that it would affect the state of Georgia and particularly, Southwest Georgia.
“The hurricane wreaked havoc in Georgia fields.” Sharon Dowdy, of the University of Georgia College of Agriculture and Environmental Services weighed in. “The rains came and in many cases prevented farmers from harvesting what the hurricane chose to leave them.”
The winds destroy thousands of crops and products, including, but not limited to poultry, cotton, and pecans. There are reports of over 80 chicken houses destroyed, which contained more than 2 million chickens. The winds drove much of the fiber of cotton into the ground or tangled it, rendering it useless for profit or use, and pecans lost a significant amount of crop due to tree damage.
Due to persistent rains in November and December, many cotton producers were unable to get in the field to pick their crops. As a result, there is still between 5 and 10 percent left to be harvested, said Whitaker. In early January, between 10 and 15 percent of the crop was still in the field, but fields started to dry out and growers were able to resume harvesting.