Georgia farmers expect to lose about 30 percent of this year’s pecan crop after Hurricane Irma’s march through the state last week. The worst part is, those are not likely to be one year losses. Gary Black, Georgia’s commissioner of agriculture, said downed trees that were nearing maturity will take years to replace, meaning some producers will have lower yields for up to a decade.
The state’s cotton crop also is in for losses that have not been determined yet, but peanuts appear to have escaped serious damage by a narrow margin.
A good peanut crop, Black said, is important for the state. Most Georgia farmers are diversified, and a combination of peanuts, pecans and cotton is a common one. “We really need that peanut crop to come through,” Black said.
Pecans, for many farmers, simply are gone. Black said producers reported hundreds or even thousands of trees down. Most of those were younger trees that were just coming into productive years. A pecan tree will start producing nuts at about five years, but it doesn’t read peak production until it has been growing a dozen or so years.
Farmers also will not be able to replace those trees quickly. Tree nurseries must have notice of demand to plant seedlings. “That 2018 inventory is already spoken for,” Black said. “It will be 2019 before they can replace those trees.”
Of course, consumers will feel it too. “There will be product available,” Black said. “I am pretty surethis will have some impact on prices.”
Georgia’s cotton crop will suffer as well. Black said some of the early crop was destroyed by high winds, while other plants were damaged. Those plants are likely to product cotton, but because the plants have been blown over, the crop will be more difficult to harvest.
With two major commodity crops suffering, Black said many farmers are pinning hopes on a good peanut crop. He estimated peanut losses at less than 5 percent, and said that if weather conditions hold, the 2017 peanut harvest could approach record levels.
“We don’t need another rain event for the next six to eight weeks,” he said of weather conditions needed for a good peanut harvest. “We could use a delayed frost.”
