Specialists Speaking- Camp Hand
Camp Hand
GEORGIA
The crop in Georgia is all over the board. There are certainly some bright spots and things to be optimistic about, but there were some struggles this year. In a single county, there are fields that look incredible, and not a mile or two away will be a field that we aren’t sure what to do with. The most unfortunate part is that in a lot of these places, rain came about a week or two too late.
Some of our dryland crop began regrowing but didn’t make blooms in time to result in a harvestable boll. Meanwhile, at the end of August and early September, where we did have a crop, overcast and rainy weather set in resulting in two of the worst words in the cotton world: “boll rot.” Makes you sick to see a crop made and lose it at the finish line. Fortunately, insect pressure as a whole was down, but we did have higher-than-normal whitefly pressure in historic whitefly areas. There were still some cotton jassids sprayed but nowhere near the amount sprayed in 2025 (thank goodness).
Timely defoliation and harvest are critical to finishing the year strong. I know that we have peanuts to harvest also, but our peanut specialist, Dr. Scott Monfort, said there will be a “lull” between our early and late-planted crop. We need to be prepared to take advantage of that and get our cotton out. Particularly if this “Super El Nino” sets in as they are predicting.
Last thing — in 2025, Georgia Department of Natural Resources started a special weekend season for antlerless deer harvest with modern firearms during bow season. That weekend for 2026 is Oct. 3 and 4 (it goes back to bow season on Oct. 5). Last year, on this particular weekend, there were 10,000 does harvested, which is way more than any other weekend in previous years. This also led to an increase in doe harvest of 8,000 does over the previous year. THIS IS A MAJOR SUCCESS!!! We have a long way to go in terms of herd management, but every little bit helps.
As always, if you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your local University of Georgia county Extension agent. We are here to help!
