This week we would like to highlight the UGA Extension Ag Water Team Newsletter. Below are a few of their impactful events: including field days, pivot uniformity tests, installing sensors, and much more. There are updates from Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest districts, Dr. Hawkins, and Dr. Porter. To see the full newsletter, please see the pdf at the end of this post!
UGA Water Team Impactful Events
Georgia/ Florida Irrigation Expo
About the expo: 33 Vendors/Sponsors, 180 Attendees, Pesticide and CCA Credits Offered,
Stations focusing on: Drip Irrigation (UFL), Advanced Drip Irrigation, Micro Irrigation, Center Pivot, Sprinkler Nozzles, Green Landscape, and General Irrigation Management
Stormwater Green Infrastructure Demo Site – Griffin, GA
4H2O Water Day
Other Events/Activities:
- National Urban Extension Leaders Conference
- Agronomic Crop Field Day UGA Tifton Campus
- American Peanut Research Education Society (APRES) Conference
- And more!
Recent Updates from the Districts
Northeast District
The Northeast District Water Agent has been promoting the UGA Griffin Green Stormwater Demonstration Site as an education tool to various Extension professional organizations. A poster on the topic was presented in Wilmington, NC at the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals meeting and at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents meeting in Denver, CO. The demonstration site was officially opened in late June with guest speakers from CAES and UGA Extension. The stormwater practices on display will be useful for training landscape industry, Extension agents, and volunteers about stormwater control for years to come. The Northeast Water Agent toured Sanford Stadium and the UGA campus grounds with the Georgia Water Wise Council in May and made some great connections with other water professionals.
Northwest District
It’s been a busy, productive quarter across the Northwest District, full of new partnerships, hands-on fieldwork, and a few proud moments worth celebrating. Here’s a look at what our Urban Water Management program and colleagues have been up to. Bridging Water and Bugs: A Growing Partnership with Entomology- Our Center for Urban Agriculture’s Urban Water Management agent continues to deepen a great working relationship with Dr. Shimat V. Joseph of the UGA Department of Entomology. Together, they’re digging into a question that matters a lot to Georgia’s nursery growers: “How Irrigation Practices and Substrate Moisture Affect Red-Headed Flea Beetle in Nursery Systems.” By looking at how watering decisions influence pest pressure, this project is helping connect the dots between water management and pest management two worlds that don’t always talk to each other but should. Beyond, the Urban Water agent continues to stay close to the ground, joining Extension agents from the City of Atlanta and Fulton County (Gabrielle Latora) for regular site visits, keeping outreach practical, local, and responsive to what growers and residents are seeing. A Ribbon-Cutting Worth Celebrating – The strong collaboration between our Northeast Water agent Martin Wunderly and the Urban Water Management team Rolando Orellana recently paid off in a big way: the ribbon-cutting of the new stormwater green infrastructure demonstration site at the UGA Research and Education Garden in Griffin, GA. This site will serve as a living classroom — showing homeowners, landscapers, and stormwater professionals how green infrastructure can slow, filter, and put rainwater to work rather than letting it run off. It’s a great example of what happens when two program areas roll up their sleeves and build something together. On the National Stage in Detroit – Rolando Orellana represented the district at the National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) Conference in Detroit, where he presented on his work with the Spanish Professional Extension Committee. It was a great opportunity to share how bilingual programming is helping Extension reach more communities and to bring back fresh ideas from urban Extension leaders across the country. Fescue in Focus – Closer to home, Orellana also paid a visit to Dr. Phillip Vines at the UGA Griffin campus to see firsthand the progress of his tall fescue breeding work. With Northwest Atlanta’s particular interest in resilient, low-input turf options, this is exactly the kind of research the district will be watching closely and hoping to bring back to homeowners and green industry professionals in the months ahead.
Southeast District
These have been some exciting times in the last few months with Extension. I have to focus on mostly one thing in my comments in this newsletter. It is so great to see so many people come together and work as a team to hold the 1st Georgia Florida Irrigation Expo in the state of Georgia with over 180 in attendance. It is so great to have so many people who can work together to pull off an event like this. As you notice in the 1st picture in this newsletter there were over 30 individuals from UGA and UF who came together to make this event possible. The Water Team appreciates all the efforts of everyone who planned, advertised, supported, and attended this event. We have definitely laid the groundwork for an event which we can build upon to help our ag producers, homeowners, and our organization. MANY THANKS UGA EXTENSION! Other than the EXPO we have been working on several trials, the Master Irrigator Program, and several summer mid-season presentations.
David Hall shared the additional information. Two days were spent at the Midville Research Center talking to over 700 students for the annual Burke County Ag Day event. The use of the Enviroscape and the Flush or Not to Flush activity was used to show how our waters can become polluted and the importance of preventing water pollution. Jenkins County Ag Agent Scout Carter also assisted. Hall presented at two different events at the Midville center conducting sprayer calibration, Enviroscape and center pivot operation. These events had students from different states throughout the southeast United Sates. Other activities include sensor installations and working with Master Irrigator Program participants with data interpretation. Hall continued to conduct and pull water samples for home loan closings along with requests to check for overall water quality for homeowners.
Southwest District
Since early May our time has been filled with preparing and conducting the GA/FL Irrigation Expo. This is the first of its kind event in Georgia and had all the UGA Ag Water Team involved as well as a tremendous number of agents collaborating on this event. Jack Bevan was our summer intern, and he was able to participate in all SW District Ag Water Team activities and made an excellent poster on the importance of pivot uniformity testing. Other efforts include multiple pivot uniformity tests (Calhoun, Lowndes, Webster, Seminole) for farmers and testing remaining pivots for uniformity for Vertento chemigation for peanut rootworm. We assisted Dr. Vellidis in installing Ag Sense/Sentek sensors alongside the SI CropFit App in corn in five locations. Soil moisture sensors in multiple cotton variety trials, Master Irrigator Program, county agent sensor requests for their farmers. Collaboration with Surface Water Monitoring Study in Colquitt with Dr. Whitney Pagan with sensor installation. Presentations at: 4H2O Water Day, Field Days in Attapulgus and Plains, APRES and NACAA. As of the writing of this newsletter, we have installed almost every available soil moisture sensor we have available. Sensors and rain buckets in corn, cotton, peanut, soybean tobacco, muscadine and coming soon, cabbage. The corn variety trial and irrigation trial are near harvest. We have run infiltrometer test on two products that can potentially improve water infiltration.
Specialist Updates
Dr. Gary Hawkins
- Conducted well water workshop for UGA Extension Agents
- Attended Solar Farm Conference to highlight soil erosion needs when installing solar systems
- Attended the National Environmental Health Association Annual Meeting to preview Managing Water Well for Food Safety program with Dr. Laurel Dunn.
Dr. Wesley Porter
It seems that there is always too much to write about between newsletters about what we have been working on. I would say some of the most notable items are that my team and myself have presented at the ASABE Annual Meeting and the APRES Annual Meeting. I had the opportunity to travel to western Tennessee to present at the Tennessee Ag Producers Association and the Milan No-Till field day, and then helped coordinate and present at the Georgia Plant Food Educational Society Summer Meeting, along with providing a research update to the GA Cotton Commission, and talking at the AgSouth Tri-State Producers conference. All of this was just the month of July!! Well over 2,000 miles of driving just between Tennessee and the last few meetings. Busy is good though, it means that the information you are providing is wanted and needed!
Upcoming Events – Mark Your Calendars
We try to include relevant events that are upcoming over the next few months. If we missed anything let us know and we will make sure we get it added.
Additionally, if you are interested in any of the events listed below and need more information, please reach out.
| Meeting/Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Southeast REC (Midville) Field Day | August 12, 2026 | Midville, GA |
| UGA Grand Farm Field Day | August 13, 2026 | Perry, GA |
| Georgia Peanut Achievement Club | August 14-16, 2026 | Jekyll Island, GA |
| Cotton and Peanut Research Field Day | September 2, 2026 | Tifton, GA |
| Georgia Peanut Tour | September 22-24, 2026 | Savannah/East Georgia |
| J. Phil Campbell Cotton Field Day | September 29, 2026 | Watkinsville, GA |
| 4D-Farm Annual Field Day and Update | October 8, 2026 | Tifton, GA |
| Sunbelt Ag Expo | October 20-22, 2026 | Moultrie, GA |