News

UGA Ag Forecast to be held across Georgia Jan. 14-23

  • December 8, 2014
From Georgia Faces
By Merritt Melancon 
University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

( Image credit: Megan McCoy)

From new varieties to new technologies and new markets, Georgia’s agricultural landscape is guaranteed to change every year.

The University of Georgia’s team of agricultural economists will provide valuable insights into what 2015 will hold for the state’s largest industry during the 2015 Georgia Ag Forecast series.

The annual seminar series will be held Jan. 14-23 in Gainesville, Cartersville, Bainbridge, Lyons, Tifton and Macon. Registration for the series is open atwww.georgiaagforecast.com.

The UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences hosts the annual seminar series, and its attendance grows every year. Nearly 1,000 business people, producers and community leaders attended their local seminars in 2014.

“The main objective of the Ag Forecast seminar series is to provide Georgia’s producers and agribusiness leaders with information on where we think the industry is headed in the upcoming year,” said Kent Wolfe, director of the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. “It helps farmers plan what they're going to plant in the next year, but it’s also good for bankers and others who do business with farmers or who will be impacted by the farm economy.”

Economists from the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development and from the UGA Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics will deliver the economic outlook, which will focus on Georgia’s major commodities and the way that global markets, weather patterns and historical trends will affect those commodities.

In addition to the annual economic outlook, Douglas Britton, program manager for the Agricultural Technology Research Program at Georgia Tech, will speak about research being done in conjunction with UGA and will provide insight into the next wave of innovation in agricultural technology — from remote-sensing systems to unmanned aerial vehicles.

The 2014 Ag Forecast sessions will be held Jan. 14 in Gainesville, Jan. 15 in Cartersville, Jan. 16 in Bainbridge, Jan. 21 in Lyons, Jan. 22 in Tifton and Jan. 23 in Macon.

The Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series is organized by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. This series is made possible through the Georgia Farm Bureau Land Grant University Lecture Series Endowment and is supported by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Agribusiness Council.

For more information on the 2015 Ag Forecast series, seewww.georgiaagforecast.com, follow @UGA_CollegeofAg on Twitter or search for #agforecast on social media.

(Merritt Melancon is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.