News Stories - Page 33

When the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology interact, especially around Thanksgiving, they’re typically colliding on the football field for another historic round of clean, old-fashioned hate. But what you see on the gridiron is 180 degrees from the relationship the two schools share in Georgia farm fields where they work in harmony — and often full-fledged partnership — to improve the productivity and profitability of various sectors of Georgia agriculture.

A year after Hurricane Michael ravaged southwest Georgia, including the region’s pecan industry, farmers still are struggling as they harvest this year’s crop, according to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells.

The students and faculty of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences came together Nov. 12 to celebrate the progress that agriculture has made in the past 50 years and the promise of innovations to come.

A drought that has spanned multiple months has University of Georgia peach specialist Dario Chavez concerned that peach trees in Georgia may suffer from lack of water.

The time of the year has come when Georgians look to the sky to watch for signs of Monarch butterfly migration. These butterflies are on their way to the Sierra Madre of Mexico to overwinter on the oyamel fir trees of the area.

Georgia farmers devote about 900 acres to growing pumpkins — technically a squash and a cousin to the cucumber. Most Georgia-grown pumpkins come from the northernmost part of the state where the climate is cooler and there is less disease pressure. UGA-bred ‘Orange Bulldog' is disease resistant.