UGA experts to discuss the economy, livestock antibiotic regulations, 2018 farm bill at Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series
By: Merritt Melancon
The Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series will be held Jan. 18-27. University of Georgia agricultural economists will present insights into the latest market and regulatory conditions for the state’s largest industry.
Hosted by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the 2017 seminar series will be held in Macon, Marietta, Carrollton, Tifton, Bainbridge, Lyons, Waynesboro and Athens, Georgia. Registration for the series is now open at georgiaagforecast.com.
Nearly 1,000 producers, agribusiness representatives and community leaders attended the seminars in 2016.
“The main objective of the Ag Forecast seminar series is to provide Georgia’s producers and agribusiness leaders with information on where we think the industry is headed in the upcoming year,” said Kent Wolfe, director of the UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. “It helps producers plan for the next year, but it’s also good for bankers and others who have businesses involved in agriculture or who will be impacted by the farm economy.”
Economists from the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development and from the college’s department of agricultural and applied economics will deliver the economic outlook, which will focus on Georgia’s major commodities and the way that global markets, weather patterns and historical trends will affect those commodities.
In addition to the economic outlook for 2017, attendees in Marietta, Carrollton and Athens will hear from Brent Credille, a livestock research veterinarian from the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine. Credille will discuss the implementation and possible impacts of the veterinary feed directive, a 2015 U.S. Food and Drug Administration measure that limits the use of antibiotics in livestock feed and water.
The featured speaker at the Macon, Tifton, Bainbridge, Lyons and Waynesboro forecast seminars will be Bob Redding of the Redding Firm in Washington, District of Columbia. Redding will discuss major themes that may be addressed in the 2018 farm bill before moderating a discussion on the bill.
The 2017 Georgia Ag Forecast sessions will be held:
Jan. 18 at the Georgia Farm Bureau building in Macon.
Jan. 19 at the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta.
Jan. 20 at the Carroll County Agriculture Center in Carrollton.
Jan. 23 at the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center in Tifton.
Jan. 24 at the Decatur County Agricultural Center in Bainbridge.
Jan. 25 at the Toombs County Agri-Center in Lyons.
Jan. 26 at the Burke County Office Park in Waynesboro.
Jan. 27 at the UGA Center for Continuing Education in Athens.
The Georgia Ag Forecast seminar series is made possible through the Georgia Farm Bureau Land-Grant University Lecture Series Endowment and is also supported by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Agribusiness Council.
For more information on the 2017 Georgia Ag Forecast series, visit georgiaagforecast.com, follow @UGA_CollegeofAg on Twitter or search for #agforecast on social media.
(Merritt Melancon is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)