The Week in Florida Agriculture
May 18-24, 2009
Peanut planting continues with 54 percent completed compared to 74 percent this time last year. Planting of peanuts, soybeans and cotton is slowing. Snap bean harvest continues. Wind and rain damage to crops is being assessed. Squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, sweet corn, and blueberries were possibly affected. Spring potato crop suffered 60-70 percent loss due to heavy rain and flooding. Planting of cotton and peanuts is behind schedule due to rain. Soybeans and cotton are being planted. Small grains harvest has been delayed. Squash and tomatoes are being harvested. Peanut planting is nearly complete. Watermelon, cantaloupe and eggplant are being packed in Wauchula. Hay supplies are adequate. Vegetable harvest is concluding. Watermelon and sweet harvest continues. Pickle cucumber harvest continues. Watermelon harvest is concluding. Blueberry harvest is concluding. Pepper and cucumber harvest concluding. Watermelon harvest concluding in Immokalee. Okra and tomato harvest continue in Florida City. Seafood: The recent adverse weather conditions kept many commercial boats onshore. However, soft-shell blue crab and flounder are plentiful. Vegetables: Vegetable harvest concluding in southern Florida. Central and northern Florida producers are assessing recent rain damage. Celery and radishes are being marketed. Livestock and Pastures: Pasture and cattle condition improving slightly, but more time is needed for the pastures to recover. In the Panhandle and northern areas, pasture condition is poor to excellent with most fair to good. Feeding of supplemental hay continues. Rain is spurred growth of summer perennials pasture, but the grass needs to overcome past overgrazing before growth is enough to provide good pasture. Cattle condition is poor to excellent with most fair to good. In the central areas, pasture is in very poor to good condition with most poor to fair due to recent, extreme and prolonged drought. Supplemental hay feeding is active but hay supplies are short. Calves are being weaned. Pasture condition in the southwest is very poor to good with most poor to fair. Pastures are improving with grass beginning to grow. Stock pond water levels have risen. Statewide, cattle condition is very poor to excellent with most fair to good. Citrus: Several days of storms and heavy showers drenched Florida’s citrus-producing region. Although some storms were quite strong, none caused significant damage to citrus groves. The western citrus areas received more than 3 inches of rain, with higher totals in the northern and central areas. Apopka recorded over 10 inches. Kenansville and Sebring recorded over 6 inches. Localized flooding caused some growers to pump excess water out of the groves and into canals and reservoirs. Temperatures were slightly lower this week than in the past several weeks, dropping to the 60s at night, but still reaching the mid-80s during the day. Valencia processing dropped below the 6 million-box level, primarily because the pickers were hampered by the weather. Most packinghouses plan to close in mid-June or early July. Varieties being run included late oranges and very limited quantities of grapefruit. Production practices were very light because of the weather.
