Published by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Cogongrass
workshop June
2 in Scotland
County
Following the discovery of
the federally listed noxious
weed cogongrass in northern
Scotland County, plant pest
regulators will hold a work¬
shop June 2 to help residents
identify the grass to be able to
report it and help prevent its
spread.
The free, hands-on work¬
shop will be held from 10 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m. and will provide
participants the opportunity to
see the plant during its (lower¬
ing stage, help them learn how
to identify it and offer discus¬
sions with weed control spe¬
cialists about various control
options. The workshop will be
held at the cogongrass site in
Marston.
Isolated stands of the
weed have been eradicated
in Martin, Pender and Stan¬
ly counties. Cogongrass is
considered one of the top
10 weeds in the world, and
spreads through seed and rhi¬
zomes.
Anyone interested in at¬
tending the workshop is asked
to register through EvenlBrite
by searching the site for Co¬
gongrass Workshop or con¬
tact Lassiter at 919-707-3749
or email at bridget.lassiter@
ncagr.gov.
NC Festival runs May 20-22
Fcstivalgocrs will see tractors, tractors, tractors at the Got to Be NC
Festival, which features a daily tractor parade. The family- friendly event
also features music, food, kids' activities, rides and games.
Got to Be
Dinosaurs, pirates and bull¬
dozers will be among the addi¬
tions to the perennial lineup of
North Carolina food, animal and
agricultural exhibits at the 2016
Got to Be NC Festival. The event
will take place May 20-22 at the
N.C. State Fairgrounds.
‘The Got to Be NC Festival
showcases the finest of North
Carolina’s $76 billion agriculture
industry while offering a variety
of family-friendly attractions for
visitors to enjoy,” said Agricul¬
ture Commissioner Steve Troxler.
“This year’s lineup is one of our
most diverse yet, so come out and
celebrate with us.”
The new attractions include an
interactive dinosaur exhibit curat¬
ed by a former N.C. Zoo employ¬
ee and paleontology enthusiast,
swashbuckling pirate reenactors
and educators, and rumbling
and roaring antique construction
equipment.
Dakota & Friends
Dakota & Friends is an inter¬
active and informational dino¬
saur exhibit featuring Dakota,
a moving, life-size Deinonycus.
In the exhibit, visitors will have
a chance to interact with Dakota
and pet a baby Tyrannosaurus
Rex. The attraction also in¬
cludes other dinosaurs, explod¬
ing volcanoes, natural dinosaur
habitats and more.
Shadow Players
Shadow Players is a stage
combat group that portrays and
re-creates scenes from the gold¬
en age of piracy. Shadow Play¬
ers features Steve Whetzel, the
pirate mascot of East Carolina
University. Through rousing
sword fights and comedy, the
troupe educates the crowd on
real-life pirates such as Black-
beard and others who sailed the
seas off North Carolina’s coast.
(See Festival, pg. 2)
NCDA&CS offers new online mapping services
■ Voluntary program aims to help prevent crop damage and bee deaths
The N.C. Department of Ag¬
riculture and Consumer Servic¬
es has joined 13 other states in
partnering with FieldWatch, an
online mapping service to help
prevent crop damage and bee
deaths due to accidental/unin¬
tended pesticide drift. Producers
of horticultural and organic crops
can map their field location us¬
ing the DriflWatch program. As
a companion program, BeeCheck
will allow hive owners to map
the locations of beehives. Pesti¬
cide applicators can access both
databases before treating a field
to identify sensitive sites that are
close to the spray areas.
“This program is voluntary,
non-regulatory and free to use,”
said Agriculture Commissioner
Steve Troxler. "Other states, es¬
pecially in the Midwest, have had
great success in getting pesticide
users, farmers and beekeepers to
use the site to reduce the effects
of accidental drift. We hope to see
similar results here.”
Growers, beekeepers and pesti¬
cide users can access DriftWatch
and BeeCheck at www.ncagr.gov/
pollinators. The website offers de¬
tailed instructions on how to sign
up and use the mapping tools.
Producers of high-value specialty
crops, such as tomatoes, tobacco,
fruit trees, grapes and vegetables
can map their sites and provide
contact information about their
operation on DriftWatch. Using
BeeCheck, beekeepers map their
hives using pins and half-acre cir¬
cles and can choose which details
of hive information are displayed
on the map.
"This program should help
specialty crop producers, bee¬
keepers and pesticide users be
good neighbors and work to¬
gether to protect our pollina¬
tors and avoid drift on sensitive
crops,” Troxler said. “We hope
to spend the next several months
meeting with grower groups and
working with Cooperative Ex¬
tension and the N.C. Farm Bu¬
reau to explain how DriftWatch
works and how to use the online
(See DriftWatch, pg. 2)
F rom the tractor
by Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler
Commissioner Troxler
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture recently released its
2016 Prospective Plantings Re¬
port, and planting intentions point
to some interesting changes for
some crops this year.
Farmers report that they in¬
tend to plant more corn, sweet
potatoes, hay and peanuts in
2016. One of the most interesting
in that group is sweet potatoes.
If planting intentions hold true,
we could be looking at the high¬
est acreage ever recorded in our
state at 105,000 acres. That is up
21 percent from 2015. The record
is 101,000 acres in 1932.
Sweet potato producers are
finding new markets for their
commodities, including through
value-added production, so this
jump is not too surprising. We are
now seeing sweet potatoes in pet
food, as well as the raw product
being turned into chips, fries and
purees, making it easier for con¬
sumers and food service workers.
We even have a company in the
state making vodka from sweet
potatoes. All of these uses mean
there is a market for less-than-
perfect potatoes including small¬
er, misshapen ones, which is good
for the bottom line.
We often see up and down
numbers for corn, particularly as
prices fluctuate. Farmers have in¬
dicated they plan to plant 930,000
acres this year. That is 1 8 percent
higher than 2015, reversing a
downward trend of the past two
growing seasons.
Another crop that Dr. Nick
Piggott, an N.C. State University
ag economist, recently pointed
out as being on the rise is grain
sorghum, which is projected to be
up by 25 percent. If planting in¬
tentions hold true, acreage would
jump from around 40,000 acres
to 50,000. Piggott attributes that
increase to grain sorghum poten¬
tially being more profitable than
soybeans or cotton.
Hay acreage is expected to be
up 7 percent and peanut acreage
is expected to be 6 percent higher.
When we have increases in
some crops, that typically means
another crop loses ground. Cot¬
ton, tobacco and soybean plant¬
ings are all expected to be down.
We already saw a drop in winter
wheat production, down 25 per¬
cent at 490.000 acres planted.
Cotton looks be the next big¬
gest dropper, also down 25 per¬
cent at 290,000 projected acres.
Farmers are looking at
smaller flue -cured and burley
tobacco acreage this year, with
flue-cured dropping by 6 percent
to 160,000 acres and burley be¬
ing forecast down by 5 percent.
Intentions also point to
smaller soybean acreage, down
7 percent from 2015.
Of course, planting inten¬
tions and actual plantings can be
two completely different things.
We'll know more in June when
the USDA’s acreage report
comes out.