> Farms are going to get bigger and older, surprise, surprise, more of a long term trend, one that is going to continue from the last fifty years.

> Profits per acre are going to get smaller, surprise, surprise, both an intermediate and a long term trend.

> "Specialty Crops" and "Agri-Tourism" will be come more common, but I doubt either will ever become a major factor. I see Specialty crops possibly more adapted to Alabama, Carolinas, and Georgia, perhaps, because of our more marginal soils and smaller fields when compared to the mid-South and Texas.

> Glyphosate, ALS, and DNA herbicide resistance. I see NOTHING that is a bigger threat in the near and intermediate future to our ability to grow food, fiber, and fuel around here than the Palmer Amaranth resistance to those three classes of herbicides. In fields where we have that pest, we can get maybe as much as 80% control if we spend an extra $50 per acre, and that is only mild dramatization of the problem at most.

> Peanuts! Production will remain viable in Georgia, in spite of migration and growth of acreage in the Carolinas, Mississippi, and Texas. The taste characteristics of peanuts grown on our soils are good enough to be almost required. We have growers and infrastructure in place to handle them. It remains to be seen how growth will be in these non-traditional peanut areas.

> Cotton! Now that's a hard one. I think it will remain a viable crop for years to come here,but that is one intense and expensive crop to grow! It is hard for it to compete for acres with soybean and corn prices where they are; we can do a pretty good job here and south of here planting cotton behind wheat, especially under these pivots.

> Corn/Soybeans/Wheat. At these prices, we are very attracted to thase crops down here, and while we can grow those crops, and grow decent yields and decent quality, our production cost per bushel is higher than other parts of the country, including the Mid-South. As acreages expand and increase, so do insect and disease pressures, tightening that yield-input-production margin more yet. This is why I believe that cotton and peanuts will indeed remain dominant southern crops.

> Vegetables. Georgia has become a major player in the vegetable industry, I believe we rank only behind California and Texas, maybe N. Carolina, in dollars of production now. The more successful growers are indeed that, VEGETABLE GROWERS, and have a very integrated business. Few row crop farmers grow vegetables on the side any more to any degree. The problem I see is that they have a tendency to really wear land out, as our sandy soils, their intense tillage, bedding with plastic, and crops by nature magnify erosion problems and increase weed, disease, nematode, and insect pressure in the area. However, I think they are here to stay. Many move from farm to farm, sometimes area to area and region to region, as this is a way to deal with the "wear" to the land over the course of about 3-8 years. With that mindset, and if they move on soon enough, a row crop or certainly a cattle producer can return that land to viable alternative uses. Vegetables are here to stay, as our sandy soils give them taste characteristics that consumers enjoy, and our long growing season and water availability are good for production.

> Migrant worker availability is a major issue in the south as well, especially for vegetable farming, one that is directly influenced by government policies. You know, the flight of low skill labor to the factories of the cities in the 50's lead to the cotton farmer adopting to cotton pickers. If they had remained available we would not have become as automated and efficient in that crop as we did. I can see all kinds of things in vegetables, more so in citrus, happening if labor becomes difficult, sometimes impossible to find, and these things could improve the industry, definitely a long term thing to watch.

> Cattle and livestock. During the ag recession of the 80's, Georgia farmers put a lot of marginal land to perennial pasture. I stand in awe still over how well bahia grass and in some places bermudas will grow down here on some marginal land that won't grow good row crops. I live in an area where there have been some coveted peanut quotas since the 1930's, but will tell you that our area has probably seen, over the decades, almost as much money made from cattle as peanuts. Our producers raise mama cows and send the calves to feed lots north and west to finish. Of course in times of high grain prices, that market gets tight.

> Hogs. I can't remember the last time I even smelled a hog. We had a few until the late 90's, but never all that many.

> Poultry. We have a few broiler integrators in south Georgia, and look to see that industry to grow some. We sure like the steady paycheck from those chickens, and that litter will sure grow a pasture and help grow a crop.

> Water issues. Wow, what a mystery that is. If the current drought continues another couple of years, we may see louder calls for more irrigation regulation. We are seeing increased competition for water with urban areas, as their populations are growing, and will continue to do so. As our governor, Sonny Perdue, said at a water conference a couple of years ago when discussing the population growth trend, "After all, it will continue, as nobody 'retires to the North.'"

> Urban sprawl. This is not a big problem in my immediate area yet, but is one that will continue. Some of these flatter, well drained, highly productive fields are certainly attractive to housing and shopping developers!

> Cellulose ethanol. That is going to be a fun one to watch! If indeed that ever becomes viable and practical, with our long growing season, we can grow some biomass with a little bit of rain. I am concerned, however, not only with logistical issues, but the longer terms impact of erosion harvesting so much of the "biomass" from the marginal acres that are likely to be attractive to that crop.

> Intergrated industries. It is good to see S.E. farmers working together to build ethanol plants. They have built cotton gins and peanut buying points over the years, but this is the first time I've noticed much interest in seeing them really trying to get to the next level of getting a consumer ready product marketed to the public. We must focus our mindset more on producing something like our own good quality cooking oil, for example, instead of letting the processor buy our soybeans and produce oil.

In thirty years of drawing a paycheck of some kind from working in agriculture, I have never seen times as exciting, tumultuous, or stressful as today. Look, listen, and think. Make your moves. Hold on. Look, listen, and think. It's going to be a wild ride.