ATLANTA — The freeze coming through Georgia is a concern for crops.
Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray spoke to Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper about the potential impact of this week’s frigid weather.
At this time of year, it’s so important when it comes to extreme cold for Georgia crops.
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However, Harper said the timing of the severe weather this week is on our side.
At least one of the TV monitors at the state’s Agriculture Emergency Command Center is trained on weather at all times.
They stood it up to deal with the first ever bird flu case in a commercial flock in Georgia.
But now, Georgia agriculture staff are also on alert at the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, ready to respond to the winter weather potentially hitting farms in southern parts of the state not used to severe cold.
“This particular event, there could be some instances. Some of our farms in our state could see some significant issues,” Harper told Channel 2 Action News.
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Georgia’s 2023 peach crop was reduced by as much as 98% after a March freeze followed a warmer-than-normal winter.
Harper said extended freezes in January are much less damaging to key Georgia crops like peaches and blueberries.
“We should be early enough in the season. There shouldn’t be those significant impacts we’ve seen in the past from feed freezes where they’ve significantly damaged our blueberry crop and our peach crop,” Harper said. “A lot of that is because they haven’t started setting those early buds. We haven’t quite gotten to that stage in those particular crops yet.”
In fact, too warm of a winter can be bad for peaches. Harper said many farms are also still recovering from the damages of Hurricane Helene.
Harper said there was concern about what a lot of ice, for example, could do to tree limbs of pecan or peach trees.
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