First Crop Forecast of the Season Is Oct. 9

Tacy Callies Crop Forecast

season
© Florida Department of Citrus

Industry members will have several ways to hear the first official U.S. citrus crop forecast of the 2020–21 season.

Agricultural Statistics Administrator Bill Curtis of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will deliver the forecast at 12:00 noon Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, Oct. 9. His live report will be broadcast on the Southeast AgNet Radio Network, online at CitrusIndustry.net/citrus-crop-forecast and on a Zoom call co-hosted by Florida Citrus Mutual CEO Mike Sparks and AgNet West General Manager Taylor Hillman.

Southeast AgNet’s Florida radio stations invited to air the exclusive live forecast are listed below. Listeners are encouraged to contact these stations in advance for confirmation:

The Zoom call will begin at 11:40 a.m. and feature Scott Angle, University of Florida vice president for agriculture and natural resources. He’ll discuss HLB research.

Join the Zoom meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84486524344?pwd=b3ZDK2ZWNGJKY0J2aGxKaEVVNGJNUT09#success or dial in at 929-205-6099. The meeting ID is 844 8652 4344 and the passcode is 895801.

Those participating in the Zoom meeting can submit an orange crop guesstimate via the Zoom chat function starting at 11:40 a.m. The person with the closest guess to the actual forecast will win a YETI Hopper Backflip 24 soft-sided cooler/backpack.

“We’ve been partnering with Southeast AgNet for more than a decade to bring the initial crop estimate information to growers as soon as it is announced,” said Andrew Meadows, Florida Citrus Mutual director of communications. “In these challenging times, it’s great to be able to utilize Zoom as well as AgNet’s platforms to get the info out to as wide an audience as possible.”

The live 2020–21 citrus crop forecast is sponsored by Aerobotics, Farm Credit of Florida, Labor Solutions, OrangeRX and TradeMark Nitrogen Corp. The sponsors will be supporting the citrus crop forecast updates throughout the citrus season.

About the Author

Tacy Callies

Editor of Citrus Industry magazine