Browse Wheat Stories

Bochra Bahri has joined the University of Georgia as an assistant professor of plant pathology. Based on the UGA Griffin campus, Bahri will conduct research on turfgrass and forage diseases that affect growers in Georgia, the nation and around the world.

Katrien M. Devos, a professor of crop and soil sciences and plant biology at the University of Georgia, has been named a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA).

Wheat prices are down, and wheat acreage in Georgia is dropping. To boost the state’s wheat industry and help producers get more out of their crop, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension small-grains specialist Reagan Noland is researching a dual-use system that would enable growers to use their wheat crop for grain and forage production.

Beginning March 1, Robert N. Stougaard will be the assistant dean of research for the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He will be responsible for the overall supervision of the college’s seven research centers and farms and three major agricultural experiment stations located across the state.

A $198,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-sponsored Conservation Innovation Grant will support ongoing University of Georgia research on cover crops and the effects of those crops on water quality and availability for row crop production.

In 2017, Georgia row crop farmers will likely devote more acreage to the state’s tried-and-true commodities: cotton and peanuts. This and other agricultural projections for the year were the focus of the 10th annual Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series, held across the state Jan. 18-27.

Georgia’s economy will be on the rise in 2016, fueled by population growth, resurgence of the housing market and major projects across the state, including two new professional sports stadiums planned for metro Atlanta. Georgians can also expect to continue to pay less for a gallon of milk, and for meat producers, exports look encouraging for beef and pork.

As a young man working on his family’s farm in Perry, Georgia, Jerry Johnson loved the sight of wheat growing in the fields. Decades later, Johnson, now a respected plant breeder and crop and soil sciences professor, received the 2015 Inventor’s Award from the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF) for his work breeding wheat varieties for farmers in Georgia and across the Southeast.

Led by increases in forestry and livestock values, Georgia’s agricultural output increased by $484 million in 2014, making agriculture, once again, the largest industry in the state with a value of $14.1 billion. According to the most recent University of Georgia Farmgate Value Report, published earlier this month, the value of Georgia’s livestock and aquaculture industries increased by almost 36 percent from 2013.