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Latest News From UGA Extension
What the warmest year on record means for agriculture in 2025
As the new year gets underway, let’s look back at the climate conditions of 2024 and look forward to what last year's trends may indicate for 2025. Data shows that 2024 was the warmest year on record since official global tracking began in 1880. Three main factors controlled the climate last year: the warming trend across the world caused by greenhouse warming of the planet, the El Niño that dominated the eastern Pacific Ocean in the first half of the year, and the unusual warming of the Atlantic Ocean.
UGA students learn proper pet care through service-oriented CAES course
In Associate Professor Kari Turner’s “Companion Animal Care” class, Penelope stands in front of the lecture hall, her large, brown eyes taking in her audience. Penelope, a piebald pit bull terrier mix, and her caretaker, Katlyn Davis, a fourth-year animal biosciences major, are there to tell their rescue story. Three years ago, the months-old pup was found abandoned, malnourished and covered in mange under an abandoned house.
CAES scientists discover how cyst nematodes attack crops
People love the taste of sugar beets’ primary byproduct: white sugar. Soilborne cyst nematodes — parasitic, microscopic worms — enjoy the root vegetable, too, but as their sole food source. It’s an obstinate, expensive problem for farmers that researchers at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are working to solve.
CAES food scientists study essential oil coatings to improve shelf life of organic produce
Organic fruits and vegetables often face a higher risk of spoiling and harboring foodborne pathogens than their conventional farming counterparts. Because organic growers and packers must adhere to higher production standards and restrictions on chemical additives, University of Georgia experts are exploring alternative methods for protecting organic products and consumers through a new $3.5 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Romanian scholars adapt lessons from UGA Extension to benefit small farms
Building on the strong foundation established with the first cohort of Romanian-American Foundation Fulbright Scholars at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, a second slate of scholars recently completed a four-month fellowship with UGA Cooperative Extension to gather insight and inspiration for establishing extension services in the eastern European nation.
Free your mind and space from clutter in the new year
Everyone’s got one. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You know, that drawer, closet or room where you stash all the things that need to be out of the way. That counter that is always piled with correspondence, important papers or items saved for later. That cabinet or shed whose contents you may not be 100% sure of. Our society places a premium on what we own, and often our stuff defines us. While it is normal to outfit our homes with décor and sentimental items, sometimes what we have can interfere with how we live.
Latest Publications
2025 Georgia Ag Forecast
(AP 130-3)
This publication will be available in January 2025. Each year, UGA's agricultural economists develop a comprehensive overview to help various sectors of the agriculture industry navigate the year ahead. As Georgia's land-grant university, the University of Georgia conducts cutting-edge research on critical and emerging issues that are important to the agriculture industry. From this research, UGA provides the best information and education available to producers and constituents to equip them with knowledge and decision-making tools for their businesses.
2024 Georgia Corn Production Guide
(AP 132-01)
This is the Extension Corn Team's full production guide for recommended practices to plant and maintain a corn crop in Georgia. Topics include agronomic practices, growth and development, fertilization, irrigation, weed, insect and disease management, harvesting and drying, protecting stored corn, soil health, and economics/budgets.
Gloomy Scale Insects: Pests of Trees in Urban Areas
(C 1286)
Gloomy scale (Melanaspis tenebricosa) is a serious insect pest that affects maple trees in urban Georgia. It can go undetected for years. Affected trees can show branch dieback and canopy thinning after 6–10 years, when the population reaches extremely high densities. A waxy shield covering protects females from predators and insecticide exposure, and usually gives them a convex shape.
The armored scale wax covering on the bodies of gloomy scale can be detached using a knife. This is different than soft scales, such as wax scales, which are glued to the females’ bodies. Gloomy scales do not produce honeydew, also unlike soft scales. Female gloomy scales have piercing and sucking mouthparts that look like tubes that are inserted into the parenchyma cells (cells that synthesize and store trees’ organic products) in the epidermal layer of tree bark. Male gloomy scales do not have mouthparts. The black and gray dust that deposits on tree bark makes scale detection even more challenging over time, as they camouflage to the color and texture of the bark. This is especially true for trees planted along right-of-ways and parking lots.