TIFTON, Ga. — The south Georgia portion of this year’s Georgia Ag Forecast is slated for the end of this month. The annual winter seminar series, which features projections about top Georgia agricultural commodities, will make stops in Tifton, Georgia, on Monday, Jan. 23, and Bainbridge, Georgia, on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Agriculture and Georgia Farm Bureau, coordinate the annual series of seminars.

“For major commodity groups in Georgia, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ economists provide information on what they anticipate happening over the next year,” said UGA Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development Director Kent Wolfe. “We try to look into 2017 and provide information on what’s going to happen in terms of planting, prices, markets, yields and what’s going on internationally that may affect producers in Georgia.”

The 2017 Ag Forecast will be held at the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center on Jan. 23 and at the Decatur County Agricultural Center in Bainbridge on Jan. 24.

Main topics at this year’s Ag Forecast include the 2018 farm bill as well as the Food and Drug Association’s veterinary feed directive (VFD). Bob Redding, of The Redding Firm, a legislative consulting and advocacy firm in Washington, will speak about the farm bill in Tifton and Bainbridge as well as Macon, Lyons and Waynesboro, Georgia, other stops on this year’s Ag Forecast tour. Brent Credille, assistant professor in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine’s Food Animal Health and Management Program, will speak about the new VFD at the Marietta, Carrollton and Athens, Georgia, Ag Forecast seminars.

Wolfe, as well as a number of UGA Cooperative Extension specialists and agricultural economists, will also speak at various Ag Forecast locations.

“The Ag Forecast is a place for farmers and other people in the industry to come and hear what the university has to say about what agriculture is going to look like in 2017,” Wolfe said. “There will be information about what’s going on domestically and internationally and how it will impact the agricultural community in Georgia.”

Farmers, bankers, lenders, those involved in agribusiness or in in agriculture could benefit from attending the Ag Forecast seminars, according to Wolfe.

“It’s a great networking opportunity,” Wolfe said. “Last year, in Tifton, we had more than 250 people attend the Ag Forecast.”

He added that while there will be many experts providing opinions, no one can predict the future.

For more information and to register for the 2017 Georgia Ag Forecast, go to http:///www.GeorgiaAgForecast.com.