Tennessee experiences challenging year for crop production

JACKSON, Tenn. — Across the state, it has been a difficult year for farmers with heavy rainfall in May, which is a critical time for planting. This delayed getting crops in the fields and put risks on crops that were already planted.

We spoke with a local crop physiologist who shares how producers can utilize resources in the area to better manage production. According to the Tennessee Farm Bureau, statewide crop cash receipts totaled more than $3 billion in 2022.

However, despite the high-yield predictions for this year’s growing season, heavy rainfall in May and then a month or more of drought had affect on crop production.

“And not only drought but it was very dry. We didn’t have rain for nearly 5-6 weeks and then we had a heat wave with high temperatures. Which doubled the pressure on plants to lose more water,” said Avat Shekoofa, crop physiologist.

With producers not having access to water or dryland crop, the challenges arose.

Researchers at the AgResearch Center in Jackson say smart irrigation is one way that helped with this and this information is readily available to producers.

“Paying attention to this information and the availability to this information for our producers and farmers like the sensors, simply the sensors that we use in soils. Just to get some information about our underground that we cannot see. Imagine, how simple is that?” said Shekoofa.

UT Extension also offers resources through their website utcrops.com and through the MANAGE Program to assist farmers year round.

“They can have access to a bunch of information about different crops and also they can have access to our UT publications,” said Shekoofa.

Although it might be impossible to predict what mother nature will bring each year, Shekoofa says by sharing this information to producers, overall, it helps the state be better in agriculture production.

For available resources and additional information on the MANAGE Program, contact your local county extension office.

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