Ag News
Georgia production declines in most major crops
Posted on Feb 19, 2019 at 0:00 AM
Georgia corn producers increased their production by 16 percent from 2017 to 2018, but most other major crops fell off in 2018, according to the Southern Region Annual Crop Production report released Feb. 8 by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The state’s corn growers produced 50.2 million bushels in 2018, up from 43.1 million bushels in 2017. Sorghum production in Georgia also grew, from 648,000 bushels in 2017 to 795,000 bushels in 2018.
Georgia cotton growers, hit hard by Hurricane Michael in October, had what some thought would be a record crop but turned into a production decline. In 2017, Georgia growers produced 2.225 million bales. They increased overall acreage in 2018, and in early October, before Hurricane Michael, NASS forecast a crop of 2.9 million bales. The hurricane and subsequent rains reduced yield by 150 pounds per acre. NASS reported the 2018 cotton production at 1.95 million bales.
Peanut growers cut acreage by 21 percent but increased yield to 4,450 pounds per acre and produced 2.89 billion pounds in 2018, a decline of 19 percent from 2017, when Georgia peanut production totaled 3.57 billion pounds.
Hay production fell from 1.798 million tons in 2017 to 1.740 million tons in 2018, a decline of 3 percent. Georgia’s hay stocks fell from 1.24 million tons in 2017 to 1.18 million tons in 2018, a 5 percent drop.
Georgia soybean production slipped from 6.3 million bushels in 2017 to 5.4 million bushels in 2018, a decline of 14 percent.
Georgia tobacco production fell by 10 percent, from 26.25 million pounds in 2017 to 23.75 million pounds in 2018.
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