Peach buds are preparing to bloom in the warm weather

The state’s peach growers are uneasy about the current warm weather trend, which is coaxing out early buds on their trees. Chris Yonce, a fourth generation grower in Johnston, explains that once the buds begin to bloom, a hard freeze can cause a range of problems from total crop loss to cell damage which can cause misshapen fruit.

Current drought conditions make it difficult to full prepare for a freeze, says Yonce.  They protect trees by irrigating them to create an icy coating, keeping the temperature a couple of degrees higher than the air.  The Yonce’s 3,000 acres are watered by ponds that are refilled with rain water.

“If we don’t have water, with 70 percent of a peach’s size made up of water, then no appreciable rain in the wintertime is not good for us either,” Yonce says.

Yonce says there is a long time before the threat of cold is gone for the season. “But we just have to push ahead and we’ve got a lot to do. We have a lot of acreage to prune and all we can do is keep working and praying that it works out for the best. You can’t stop until it happens,” he says. “Then you can back up and assess your labor situation, your business and what you are going to do.”

Farms like Yonce’s can be protected somewhat by crop insurance, but there is no government assistance for fresh fruits and vegetables.  Big Smile farms are in the western part of the state known as The Ridge,which produces most of the state’s peach crop.

One such deal resulted in an arrest of a timber harvester in North Carolina, who is arrested and charged with bilking about $40,000 from a couple who have land in Dillon. He sought them out to make a deal.

The SC Forestry Commission’s Law Enforcement Chief David West says Irby Anthony Fields of Luberton, North Carolina allegedly only paid a little of what he owed the family.

He followed up on the complaint and tracked the  wood through the mills, to discover that Fields allegedly would keep three loads and pay them for one.

This is an important lesson, says West, because timber buyer are shopping heavily in the state:

“Wood buyers are just like everybody else,. They’re beating the bushes to try to make a living, and they are digging deep to try to find different stuff.  It’s nothing unusual for somebody to try to solicit you on the telephone, or send you a letter or a postcard. It’s all legal,” says West.

Forest-related industries a high-paying sector of our state’s economy with a $17.4 billion impact on the SC economy each year.

The Forestry Commission can protect timber land owners in the state.

Foresters with the South Carolina Forestry Commission urge landowners to have a forester from a private consulting firm or from the commission assess their land before selling timber.  Tips for landowners and lists of consultants can be obtained by calling your local Forestry Commission office or by visiting www.tree.sc.gov.

Mr. Fields is out on bond, pending trial. West says there may be more landowners with complaints against Mr. Fields across South Carolina.

Bean plataspid (Courtesy: University of Georgia)

They are called bean plataspids, but are better known as “kudzu bugs.” They resemble boxy brown ladybugs and are a Chinese insect that is not native to America, but believed to have first arrived in the Southeast in 2009 aboard a flight in Atlanta.

Since they have no natural predators in the area and cycle through several generations each season, they quickly spread across the region. Agriculture officials suspect the insects are now in all 46 South Carolina counties.

Entomologists aren’t certain how best to deal with the new pest, which emits a foul odor when threatened. They recommend that farmers use organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides, but otherwise are struggling to stop the plataspid’s rapid spread across Georgia and the Carolinas.

“This insect can cause anywhere from zero percent losses in soybeans… up to about fifty percent,” said Jeremy Greene, an entomology professor and specialist at Clemson Extension Services’ Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville, “Fifty percent is a lot.”

The plataspid attaches its mouthparts to legume (bean) stalks and then sucks out the plant’s nutrients. It’s known as the “kudzu bug” because of its affinity for kudzu– another exotic invasive species from Asia that has overrun the South. Researchers at the University of Georgia found the insect reduced kudzu growth by a third.

But that means homeowners who live near kudzu plots should watch out, says South Carolina Forestry Commission entomologist Laurie Reid. “You’re not just going to find one of these randomly on your house. You’re going to get tons of them.” She said she noticed over 100 in the yard of her house in Columbia.

The plataspids like to seek shelter over the winter, which means they will try to get indoors. Reid warns homeowners not to squish the bugs (which will release their foul odor), but to instead vacuum the insects up and empty the bag outside.

However, she cautions against using pesticides in a personal yard, since it will likely kill native, harmless insects as well.

Researchers at Clemson and elsewhere are trying to figure out how to check the plataspid’s population growth. One idea is to import a parasitic wasp that is also native to China and feeds exclusively on the kudzu bugs. However, Greene said experts are studying to make sure the wasps don’t have other, unintended effects on the local flora and fauna.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to come up with an answer,” he said, “That’s the thing that I would stress, that folks just be patient with the Extension Service and universities that are researching this problem.”

Reid says the plataspids are likely here to stay, much like the ladybug– a fellow invasive insect that is now recognized and accepted by South Carolinians.

At the severe level, a number of water-use restrictions may be put into effect based on local regulations. State Climatologist Hope Mizzell says her office is gathering information on the steps that are being taken. Because water usage for farms and lawns typically drops this time of year, the restrictions should have little impact on the public.

Mizzell says the state has been experiencing various levels of drought over the past 20 years as rain fall levels have been below normal. Mizzell says it is important to note that with the rapid growth of the state’s population over the past decade, coupled with industry growth, the demand for water has heightened exponentially.

The committee warns that conditions could deteriorate even further if the winter is as dry as has been forecast. Mizzell points to the effect of the cooling ocean surfaces, part of the phenomena known as “La Nina.”

AUDIO: Mizzell says drought conditions may worsen over the winter

The rest of the state at this time remains in a moderate drought status.

Brown Marmorated Stinkbug (Courtesy: US Dept. of Agriculture)

The stinkbug was first identified in Pennsylvania in 1998. It has spread through the Mid-Atlantic and South over the past ten years. Although it has some predators– such as snakes, lizards, and spiders– there are not enough to keep the population in check. Its primary predator in Asia is a species of parasitic wasp that does not exist in the United States.

The bug is mostly brown, but has a black and white checkerboard pattern around the edge of its body. Other than that border, it resembles the native brown stinkbug. However, there is one big difference: the Asian bugs gather in large groups, often causing an infestation.

“Basically, they like to hang out in large numbers together,” Sherry Aultman, the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey coordinator with Clemson’s plant industry department, said. “Part of the chemical smell they emit is actually signal saying ‘Hey, guys, come over here. I found something really good.’”

She said the bug has been found in five counties (Florence, Lexington, Oconee, Pickens, and Spartanburg) so far, but she believes they are already in more. She said the biggest problems are being reported in Spartanburg County.

State pest regulators want to know how widespread the bugs are in South Carolina so they can determine what countersteps are needed. “We can keep these levels down,” Aultman said, “The trick is finding out what the population levels are… You don’t want to just start spraying if you don’t have high numbers of them.”

Aultman said she expects the number of sightings to go up as the cold weather approaches and the insects are driven inside. Clemson is asking anyone whose home is possibly infested by the bugs to take a sample to a nearby Clemson Extension Service center. They warn against spraying large amounts of insecticide inside the home.

Clemson is headquarters for the state’s official plant pest regulatory agency. The agency monitors and reports the movement of such pests in the state to alert growers to the threats. The school’s Department of Pesticide Regulation is working to prepare a request for EPA to allow the use of an insecticide not currently approved for this insect on fruit trees.

Right now, Santee National Wildlife Refuge on Lake Marion allows farmers to grow corn on roughly 175 acres, with much of it meant to feed ducks and geese that pass through the park. The Fish & Wildlife Service, the agency that runs the nation’s wildlife refuges, does not make money off its arrangement with farmers.

However, the Center for Food Safety says it is concerned about the effects of that farming and is suing to stop the practice. ”These crops promote overuse of herbicides,” staff attorney Paige Tomaselli said, ”Since most genetically-modified crops are herbicide-tolerant, the farmers can indiscriminately douse the crops with as much herbicide as they want… And this can affect wildlife, biodiversity, and humans who visit the refuge.”

The lawsuit demands an end to the practice until the Fish & Wildlife Service completes an environmental impact statement. However, Fish & Wildlife spokesman Tom MacKenzie said the agency already goes beyond the restrictions for traditional farms: allowing fewer pesticides, creating “buffers” between the crops and waterways, and requiring farmers to rotate crops.

“We’ve been in the cooperative farm business for years and we’ve utilized genetically-modified crops just like most of the other farmers in America are doing,” MacKenzie said.

Santee NWR was created in 1941 to provide a haven for waterfowl after the Santee River was dammed to create Lake Marion. Farming is relatively small there, but officials work with farmers to plant millet and sorghum, with 25 percent of the crop reserved for migrating waterfowl, such as geese and ducks. After a harvest, the field is flooded, and the leftover grain provides a source of food for the birds.

However, Tomaselli disputes that the crops provide extra food. “These crops are pushing out the native grasses that were originally there to feed the migratory birds,” she said, “As long as we’re perpetuating the farming on the refuges, the native grasses and other plants cannot return.”

Santee Refuge Manager Marc Epstein said the number of waterfowl has recently started to decline at the site. He said the crops offer a way to maintain the population. However, the rising costs of fertilizer, fuel, and seeds are slowing farmers down, “It’s costly for us to do these programs,” he said.

Tomaselli says, while the group is pushing to stop the planting of genetically modified crops, it wants to eventually stop any type of farming in wildlife refuges. The group has successfully stopped the practice in the Northeast after two lawsuits in Delaware, and is now looking at ending farming in the Southeast, as well.

MacKenzie said that would have a negative impact, “For 25 out of our 128 refuges, we currently believe that farming helps wildlife.”

The complaint was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C. Two other environmental groups, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Beyond Pesticides, are also involved in the lawsuit.

The new deal sets strict rules about how the fruit must be grown. The reason is because Mexico banned southern peaches in 1994 due to concerns about invasive pests. After that, only California peaches were imported into the country.

Titan Farms President and CEO Chalmers Carr III said the new agreement is big for his company, “When you look at the domestic supply of peaches, there has been… an oversupply in the amount of peaches produced that are being consumed in the United States,” he said, “Broadening your market base for any agricultural commodity is important.”

A few years ago, farmers from Georgia and South Carolina began reaching out to the Department of Agriculture to ask why they could not export peaches to Mexico. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began testing Southern plants to check for pests and determine if there was any risk those pests could appear. Such standards are necessary under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The process went slowly for three years, as required. However, Chalmers said Mexico became spooked by the appearance of new invasive bugs in California peaches last year. “That put Mexico on ‘red alert,’” Carr said, “Even though those pests were not in the Southeast at all… we were penalized for that situation.”

Carr said the process became bogged down until he was finally able to contact a USDA official stationed in Mexico, who set up a meeting with Mexican officials. The CEO said he made the trip to the country himself to represent the industry in April (government officials are not allowed to do the negotiations). “That’s what really finally moved the ball,” he said.

Clemson University peach specialist Desmond Layne, known to farmers as “Doctor Peach,” said Mexico presents an opportunity for growers to sell fruit that might not make supermarket shelves.

“The Mexican market prefers the smaller-sized peaches, so that’s sort of a double bonus” Layne said, “They want the fruit that, for us, maybe doesn’t earn as much money in our market because of its smaller size.”

Titan, the state’s largest peach producer at 4,900 acres, is also the only one in Georgia or South Carolina currently shipping to Mexico. Carr said that’s because of the hard requirements Mexico puts in place– setting and trapping pests, frequent inspections in the field, and keeping the fruit separate from peaches bound for other locations. Carr said those standards resulted in smaller farms backing out this year.

However, he predicted more companies would be able to take advantage of the new agreement in the future. There is a second possible avenue for those wanting to expand– a fumigation approach. Carr said that requires a USDA-approved facility which does not currently exist in the Southeast. He predicted one would be built before the end of the year.

Another hurdle is shipping the peaches nearly 3,000 miles to Mexico. Peaches are a delicate fruit that have to be handled carefully. For instance, they must be transported at a temperature below 35 degrees to avoid ripening. Since peaches also bruise easily, trucks carrying them must be equipped with air bags to lessen the effect of any bumps in the road on the cargo. Producers are also using special pallets that use corner posts to stabilize the load and prevent it from swaying. Such methods are traditionally used with other higher-value fruit, such as cherries.

“To get peaches a long distance in good quality is very expensive,” Layne said. He said it costs almost $9,000 for tractor-trailer truck to carry peaches from coast-to-coast in the United States, “That’s just the cost of moving the fruit. That’s not the cost that’s in the fruit in terms of growing it, packing it, and everything else.”

The Mexican retailer selling the peaches is responsible for transporting them to the country.

Rep. Bill Hixon (R-North Augusta)

State Representative Bill Hixon (R-North Augusta) had it easy on his first piece of legislation.

The freshman lawmaker and avid hunter first arrived at the Statehouse in January after his election last year. He immediately worked to shepherd a little-noticed bill through the legislature that has major implications for hunters in South Carolina.

The quiet Aiken County legislator will get a moment in the spotlight Tuesday as Governor Nikki Haley plans to hold a ceremonial signing of the law in his hometown of North Augusta. The new law lets South Carolina join the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact– a hunting agreement between 44 states. While it may not sound like much, it actually fixes what Hixon and wildlife management officials say was a major hole in state game laws.

Right now, if a person from outside South Carolina commits a hunting or fishing violation in the state, the game warden is required to collect a fine on the spot, and take the hunter to prison if they are unable to pay it. Likewise for South Carolinians in many other states. Without being in the compact, a South Carolina hunting license is no good across state lines, and is akin to hunting or fishing with no license at all.

Hixon said most wardens believed the law was an unnecessary burden, and would instead take out-of-state violators to ATMs or escort them home so they could get money to pay the fines. He said he was afraid some hunters who could not pay were going to jail unnecessarily, “I think it would be a shame to see somebody’s (mug shot) that caught too many fish or did not have enough life jackets, or something like that,” Hixon said, “Jail needs to be a place for hardened criminals.”

He said he was surprised when he arrived in Columbia and no one could tell him why South Carolina was not participating in the compact. “I would try to tell these House members and senators about this,” Hixon said, “Every one of them would look at me and say, ‘Why haven’t we done this before?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t know… I just got here. I was just elected.”

The new law, originally passed by the legislature and signed by the governor in April, would address that problem by enrolling South Carolina in the compact. Under the agreement, a South Carolina hunting license would be recognized as valid in other states, much like a driver’s license.

South Carolina would also have access to a national database that allows Department of Natural Resources officials to do background checks on new hunters to see if their license was suspended in another state. Right now, officials have no way to get to that database.

It’s unusual for a freshman legislator to get a law changed in his first year, especially one that passes overwhelmingly, as Hixon’s bill did. “It was a dream come true for a first piece of legislation as a freshman,” Hixon said. “I was proud to do it.”

The law will go into effect within the next six months, as DNR begins the process of implementing the changes.

The Right Choice Fresh Start Farmers' Market to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables as part of research.

The state’s first farmers market located at a federally qualified health center is now open in Orangeburg. 

The Right Choice Fresh Start Farmers’ Market is designed to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables to medically underserved patients. The market is supported by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant to the University of South Carolina’s Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network. It is part of the national cancer prevention and control research network, one of 10 projects nationally.

The center held a grand opening ceremony Friday.

University of South Carolina social work professor Darcy Freedman led the effort to create the market. Freedman said the goal is to increase access to healthy food options for people in rural communities and to link health promotion and economic development.

Researchers are also examining the influence of the market on patients at the health center, including how, or if, it influences their diet. They are specifically tracking patients with diabetes, as well as are looking at the economic impact of the market on farmers.

Campylobacter is one of the most common causes of diarrheal illness in the United States.

Raw milk is unpasteurized milk. Retail sale of raw milk is legal in South Carolina,yet it is illegal to distribute raw milk in final package form for direct human consumption in interstate commerce.

The FDA is working with officials in North Carolina and South Carolina to investigate the outbreak n three different households. One person was hospitalized.

Public health authorities, including FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have expressed concerns about the hazards of drinking raw milk for decades.

The symptoms of illness may include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache and body ache. If consumers of raw milk are experiencing one or more of these symptoms after consuming raw milk or food products made from raw milk, they should contact their health care provider immediately.

Map of the drought status in each county (Courtesy SC DNR)

The drought affecting South Carolina is getting worse. That’s according to the state’s Drought Response Committee, which increased two counties– Marion and Horry– to “severe” drought status and upgraded Kershaw, Lancaster, Lexington, and Richland counties up to “moderate.”

“Severe” is the state’s second-highest level of drought, behind only “extreme.”

State Climatologist Hope Mizzell said the four Midlands counties were upgraded even though they’ve seen a lot of rain in the past week. “I know it can be confusing, because it seems like now our rainfall has been closer to normal,” she said, “But, really, we’ve also had to deal with the excessive heat. So the rainfall that we’ve been receiving has really just barely been enough to keep up with evaporation.”

Right now 28 counties are considered to be in a “moderate” drought, 2 are now listed as “severe,” and the rest are considered “incipient,” which is the lowest level of drought. Those counties currently in a moderate drought are all in the Midlands and Lowcountry. The 16 incipient counties are all located in the Piedmont and Upstate.

Mizzell says the recent outbreak in wildfires in the Pee Dee is part of the reason Marion and Horry counties are now in a severe drought.

Many of the state’s crops have been decimated by the dry weather. Part of Thursday’s teleconference meeting focused on the heavy losses suffered by South Carolina’s corn farmers. The state Department of Agriculture said many counties are potentially looking at a total corn crop failure, along with stress on other crops and livestock.

Mizzell said certain other parts of the state, especially in the Lower Savannah region, are suffering the symptoms of a severe drought. In these areas, the effects are not countywide however, keeping them listed as moderate.

Mizell says rainfall levels in the affected counties have been below normal for weeks. Mizell says the decision was made to raise awareness that drought conditions are intensifying in a number of areas of the state.

AUDIO: Mizell says drought conditions are intensifying around the state (1:04)