If you want to see a clear sign of the effects of the 2016 drought, look no further than livestock auction receipts for the week of November 11. Georgia cattlemen took 3,600 more cattle to the sale than they did during the same period in 2015. That's an increase of over 46 percent. For the year as a whole, 5,600 more head have hit the auction, obviously a large part of that coming in the latter half of the year as pastures quickly degraded.
Chart, forage conditions, and November 22 drought map are below. Praise the Lord we've had some rain in December.
David Wildy, a diversified row crop farmer from Manila, Arkansas, is the 2016 Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year.
Wildy farms more than 12,000 acres in the rich Delta soils of northeast Arkansas. His fifth-generation farm produces cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat. This year marks his second year of growing peanuts and first growing potatoes.
In 2015, Wildly Family Farms averaged 1,180 pounds of lint for cotton, 220 bushels of corn, 65 bushels of soybeans, 6,900 pounds of peanuts, 75 bushels of wheat per acres.
Read more about Wildy's recognition at Growing Georgia and visit the farm website.
