News Stories - Page 185

University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead (right) and 2017 Georgia Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Farmer of the Year Everett Williams (left) are pictured at the 40th annual Sunbelt Agricultural Expo in Moultrie, Georgia, on Tuesday, Oct. 17. CAES News
Sunbelt Expo
University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead discussed the future of Georgia agriculture with industry leaders at the 40th annual Sunbelt Agricultural Expo in Moultrie, Georgia, on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
The bean plataspid or kudzu bug CAES News
Exotic Pest Meeting
The Georgia Exotic Pest Plant Council will examine the control and management of invasive insects and plants at the council’s annual conference on Monday, Oct. 30, at the University of Georgia Griffin campus. The conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
A vendor installs a soil moisture probe in a cotton field assisted by Jeremy Kichler, Colquitt County Extension Coordinator. CAES News
Irrigation Outreach
As part of an irrigation efficiency study by University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, a 29-person team of social scientists, agricultural economists, climatologists, agricultural engineers and UGA Extension agents from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is studying agricultural irrigation in order to increase the water-use efficiency in row crops common to southern Georgia.
Sandbags work to keep the sea at bay in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. University of Georgia scientist Craig Landry says there are places along the coast that are so at risk of eroding that they are pushed to embrace a "phased retreat."  Tourists could stop coming because of beach erosion and homeowners would sell because they can't afford insurance, or they are worried about losing their investment, he said. CAES News
Coastal Study
University of Georgia natural resource economist Craig Landry will use his portion of a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how the economy and the environment are affected when humans and coastal regions commingle. The four-year project is a team effort with researchers from Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio.
National 2017 4-H Youth in Action Citizenship winner Amelia Day is a recent high school graduate from Fort Valley, Georgia. As a Georgia 4-H member, she created Operation: Veteran Smiles, a project that provides care packages to veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. CAES News
4-H Week
Six million students across America participate in 4-H and, of those, more than 170,000 call Georgia home. To raise awareness of the state’s largest youth development organization, the week of Oct. 1-7 has been declared National 4-H Week.
After an initial meeting with Rosalynn Carter and representatives from the National Park Service, the Master Gardeners began redesigning the butterfly garden on the Carter Compound in Plains, Georgia. CAES News
Presidential Garden
Earlier this spring, representatives for former first lady Rosalynn Carter sought help from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. UGA Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Extension Volunteers, who are trained to help UGA Extension staff deliver research-based information about gardening and related topics to the public, began work on the project.
Cucurbit leaf crumple virus, a disease carried by whiteflies, infects vegetable plants like squash (pictured). CAES News
Whitefly management
Summer may have ended, but Georgia’s silverleaf whitefly infestation has not.
The Southeast Partnership for Advanced Renewables from Carinata (SPARC), as the consortium is known, will identify and develop varieties of carinata that will thrive in the Southeast. SPARC will work to develop every step of the supply chain necessary to produce carinata-based jet fuel for civil and military aviation, industrial chemicals and animal feed. CAES News
New Biofuels
Researchers have produced biofuels from corn, switchgrass and even algae, but researchers at the University of Georgia will soon study a new source of renewable biofuels: the lesser-known crop of carinata, also known as “Ethiopian mustard.”
A peach tree touches the ground after tropical storm winds blew through the University of Georgia's research peach orchard on the Dempsey Farm in Griffin, Georgia. CAES News
Leaning Trees
Farmers aren’t the only ones busy working in their fields to repair damage from Tropical Storm Irma. As the University of Georgia’s peach specialist based on the UGA Griffin campus, my team and I have been busy trying to save young trees in our 3-year-old research orchard. Irma passed through Georgia with strong, sustained winds.