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What rain information should we believe?
Grass is greener...
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OK, we got some rain recently, so now you are out there thinking the drought is over and you can go back to doing what you want.
I only wish it was that easy. I checked the Palmer Drought Index for the Southeast ending Feb. 16, and it showed Georgia all in gray, which means normal moisture. Then, for the same region on the same website, I clicked on the Crop Moisture Index and it showed North Georgia as wet, Coastal Georgia as abnormally moist (one notch drier than wet) and the rest of Georgia as excessively wet for the same day. Then I clicked the link to the U.S. Drought Monitor for Feb. 19, and it showed Coastal and Central Georgia in extreme drought, just one notch down from exceptional.
So what gives? Who do we believe? Now the fun starts.
All three of these charts are correct. Each of these moisture maps are assembled for different purposes. Just like a half-inch wrench is the right wrench for a half-inch bolt head, each one of these maps is right when it is applied to the question it is designed to solve. Now try using that same half inch wrench on a 9/16 bolt. It just doesn’t work; it is not the appropriate tool for the job. There is nothing wrong with the half-inch wrench. It still is a perfectly good tool. We just have a mechanic selecting the wrong tool for the job. Unless one selects the right tool, one will not make beneficial progress and will wind up with skinned knuckles and high blood pressure.
The Crop Moisture Index looks at how much water is in the plow layer right now. It is a good reflection of the past week’s rainfall. Just the sort of thing you want to know if you are down to picking a date to put your tractors in the field planting, or later in the year to see what the yield prospects will be for, say, corn harvest. Check moisture levels at critical water-demand times for crops in the field.
The Palmer Drought Index is a longer-term measure of available moisture. It includes rainfall but also factors in temperature and soil moisture recharge to get at whether there is adequate moisture in the soil-surface plow layer as well as the deeper subsoil that can recharge topsoil somewhat and can be tapped by deep rooted crops like corn, alfalfa and forages.
The PDI is good for year-to-year planning by farmers on a county-by-county basis, but how does one advise elected officials and the money folks like Department of Agriculture and the Internal Revenue Service about the intensity of drought being suffered by farmers? Enter the U.S. Drought Monitor. Let’s compare the Feb. 19 USDM to PDI for Feb. 16 — the latest available maps at the time I wrote this. Both agree that the central plain states are in extreme, exceptional droughts. We will learn the difference between the two by looking at where they seem to disagree. The PDI shows Louisiana, Mississippi and southern Alabama to be extremely moist to very moist over much of the states. The USDM shows these areas to be normal in moisture. My interpretation is that the PDI shows these areas have recently gotten a lot of moisture. The USDM says that moisture will be enough to recharge subsoil moisture and break the drought or weaken it in the portions of the states affected.
The same maps show all of Georgia to be at normal moisture on the PDI but in the USDM, it shows everything south of Atlanta to be in moderate-to-extreme drought. My interpretation is that we recently have received good but not excessive rainfall across the state. Yes, a few isolated spots may have received a deluge, but the interstates still are open through Macon, so it cannot be all that bad. The USDM shows that the rain we have received has not been enough to recharge plow layer or subsoil enough to meet moisture needs for crops and cattle.
Like the five blind Indians touching a different part of an elephant, a single picture does not tell the story. But a number of them together can make an educational movie. Watch out. There are a lot of folk out there telling you one part of the truth but neither all the truth nor the whole truth. Do your homework.

Gardner lives in Keller and is the UGA extension agent for Glynn County, serving South Bryan.

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
GardenCityTerminal
The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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