Do you ever wonder why honey (if stored properly) doesn't generally spoil? The answer is hydrogen peroxide! The worker bees secrete an enzyme that, when mixed with the nectar they collect, creates a reaction that produces hydrogen peroxide. This results in not only food that is nutritious for the colony, but also protects it from bacteria, fungi, and even pests. Lewis Bartlett, assistant professor in the University of Georgia Department of...
Cattle producers have been on edge about the threat of New World Screwworm (NWS) creeping its way to our borders. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is implementing a five-pronged plan that started in June to mitigate this potentially large issue. NWS is a parasitic fly that burrows into open wounds on livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and rarely humans. The first human case of NWS was reported on August 4th from a...
Florida farmers incurred crop and infrastructure losses from hurricanes in 2023 and 2024. Hurricane Idalia, Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Helene, and Hurricane Milton together caused between $676 million and $1.25 billion in lost agricultural production in Florida. Damage to on-farm infrastructure amounted to additional losses. Also, over the past three years commodity crop prices have fallen relative to production...
On May 2, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the appointment of Marcinda Kester as the Florida State Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA). Prior to this role, Ms. Kester served as the County Executive Director for FSA offices in Polk, Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. She also held positions as the Farm Programs Disaster Specialist and Farm Programs Chief for the Kentucky FSA. FSA State Directors...
Georgia's pecan season has closed, and numbers are not looking good for growers. Whether it was market prices or hurricane damage, this is looking to be the "worst year we've had, by far..." according to Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist. Wells said, "I know a lot of growers out there that are discouraged. I’ve talked to some that are trying to make decisions, with the way that the hurricane was, about whether to...
Florida Farm Bureau Federation (FFBF), Agriculture Education Services & Technology, Inc. (AEST), and Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA) put on LINC Conference for the third year in Daytona Beach Shores, FL. LINC stands for "Linking the Industry Network through Certifications". The conference had over 100 attendees and held workshops with topics ranging from how cut beef, to starting careers in the nursery industry....
Living in Florida, we are no strangers to a hurricane. We are used to see impacts from these storms such as closed schools, empty gas stations, and empty grocery stores, but what most of us don't see are the impacts that these storms have on farmers and ranchers. Wind damage, flooding, infrastructure damage, long-term impacts and economic effects are all things that a farmer or rancher has to think about before storms, and also full gas tanks,...
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) has discovered that muscadine grapes can detach from the vine more easily, leading to the possibility of mechanical harvesting instead of paying for manual labor to harvest the grapes by hand. The grapes detach at the pedicel, the stalk holding the fruit to the plant, and in muscadine grapes this pedicel is quite strong, leading to a stronger force needed to remove...
A webinar titled "Communicating With Farmers Under Stress" is going to be held on August 6, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET and is lead by Penn State University Extension Service. As mental health concerns are on the rise for farmers and ranchers, it is more important than ever to start having conversations about the future of the farm or ranch. This webinar is meant for agriculture industry professionals, loan officers, family members, farmers,...
With peaches coming into season, let's explore how to pick the perfect peach! Firstly, there are over 300 different varieties of peaches grown in the US including clingstone and freestone. Clingstone peaches are difficult to remove from the pit, but they are juicier and sweeter than freestone which easily come apart from the pit, but they are firmer and better for baking. There are also semi-freestone peaches that are a hybrid that are sweet and...
