TIFTON, Ga. — Make plans to attend the 43rd annual Georgia Peanut Farm Show and Conference scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, from 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center in Tifton, Georgia. The one-day show is free and open to all farmers and industry representatives to attend.

Attendees will have the opportunity to visit with more than 100 agribusinesses and organizations in the peanut and agricultural industry. Farmers will be able to earn private and commercial pesticide applicator certification, as well as learn about cutting-edge research and developments during the University of Georgia Peanut Production Seminar and industry-wide sponsored Peanut Seed Seminar.

Farm Show chairman Rodney Dawson is looking forward to the 2019 show and having a large crowd of farmers attend like previous years. “I encourage farmers to attend this one-day show in Tifton,” Dawson says. “The knowledge they will gain from industry representatives and seminars is an investment in the future of their farm.”

The Georgia Peanut Commission, in cooperation with OneBlood, will host a blood drive from   9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. during the show. At the close of the day, there will be nearly $10,000 in door prizes presented to farmers, as well as a Grand Door Prize, vendor products, certificates and equipment.

For more information on the show, contact the Georgia Peanut Commission office at 229-386-3470 or visit www.gapeanuts.com.

(OCT. 26, 2018) On August 30, the Military Health System (MHS) added critical medical information from seven physician-led health information exchanges (HIEs) across the nation.  This was facilitated by the Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN), KAMMCO and the eHealth Exchange. Laura McCrary, Ed.D, Executive Director of KHIN comments on the significance, “This represents the growing capabilities of HIEs to share records in all locations from which a patient has received care.”

With this new development, medical records can be shared across the world as military personnel and their families transition between multiple locations, stateside or overseas. Military hospitals and clinics now can quickly and securely access patients’ personal health information 24/7 and have access from the physician-led HIEs in Kansas, Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri and Louisiana.

“MHS cares for 9.4 million beneficiaries, delivering care globally in military hospitals and clinics and providing coordinated, integrated care through civilian networks,” said Kimberly Heermann-Do, Health Information Exchange Office Lead in the EHR Modernization Program Management Office. Heermann-Do added, “Through HIEs, records are available securely from the private sector if the HIE is onboarded to the MHS. Having access to records for patients across the KAMMCO network will assist MHS providers with clinical decisions.”

“The Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ) has a long history of supporting the healthcare needs of our active duty military in New Jersey. Sharing clinical information from our physician practices with MHS through OneHealth New Jersey furthers our support in this important area,” shared Larry Downs, JD, MSNJ CEO. “With a large joint base located in New Jersey our physician members provide care to many active duty military and their families.” MSNJ is one of seven medical societies who partner with KAMMCO in the delivery of a physician-led health information exchange platform.

Kurt Scott, KAMMCO CEO said, “KAMMCO provides a critical service to make patients’ medical records available wherever they receive care.  It is a privilege that we can now deliver lab results, current medications and health histories for servicemen and women across the globe.  We are proud that MHS can query our HIEs and effectively use the clinical data they access.”

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About KAMMCO

KAMMCO is a provider-led medical professional liability insurer affiliated with the Kansas Medical Society. KAMMCO’s provider-led approach uniquely positions it to help physicians, other healthcare providers, integrated delivery networks, accountable care organizations, and others seeking to improve patient outcomes and adapt to new performance-based payment models through the use of data analytics and business intelligence tools. KAMMCO is now delivering health information exchange and analytics products and services in partnership with medical societies in six states beyond Kansas, including Georgia, South Carolina, Connecticut, New Jersey, Missouri, and Louisiana. For more information, visit www.KAMMCO.com.

About Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN)

KHIN’s mission is to improve healthcare quality, coordination and efficiency through the exchange of health information at the point of care utilizing a secure electronic network provided by a collaboration of healthcare organizations. KHIN is a provider-led 501(c)3. Its goals are to ensure providers, patients and communities have long-term access to cost effective, sustainable health information exchange aligned with costs distributed across a broad user base. It also encourages and removes barriers so communities and regions can focus on quality improvement, patient centered medical home and entrepreneurial strategies that effect local health outcomes. For more information, visit www.khinonline.org.

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Atlanta, GA – The Georgia Manufacturing Summit hosted the 5^th Annual People of Manufacturing Awards on October 10, 2018 at the Cobb Galleria. These awards honored the people that exhibit excellence on a daily basis and have gone above and beyond to better their organization’s manufacturing operations.

“The People of Manufacturing Awards are designed to bring exposure and recognition to these leaders that not only perform operational excellence, but are also involved in community service,” said Jason Moss, CEO of the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance. “We are excited to announce the winners for 2018.”

Team Operational Excellence

Adient in West Point, GA

The winner for Team Operational Excellence was the High Performance Team (HPT) at Adient in West Point. In 2017, with the full engagement of the hourly workforce, the plant achieved outstanding improvements in terms of safety, quality, delivery and cost. This plant has become the “go and see” plant for HPT activities, hosting plant managers and HPT leads from all other plants, including those outside our business unit. Early successes driven by HPT include record level TUMS (Outbound Trailer Utilization), record low scrap levels, greater than 95% average monthly closure rate on ELPA (electronic layered process audit) findings and a 50% decrease in absenteeism. The West Point plant is very active in the community, supporting the local food bank, a local nursing home, and Christmas and birthdays for 40 children in a local boys and girls home.

Team Safety Award

Scientific Games in Alpharetta, GA

The winner of the Team Safety Award was Scientific Games, a global gaming entertainment company with its largest lottery instant game manufacturing facility located in Alpharetta, GA.   Over the last three years, Scientific Games’ safety culture has made impressive advancements to reduce incidents and provide a safer manufacturing workplace. Evidence that the safety protocols have been effective at Scientific Games can be seen in the reduction of the number of recordable incident reports over the last two years, which has allowed the facility to fall within the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) classification of “world class safety”.

Plant Manager Award

Jason Harden of Sunny Delight Beverages in Atlanta, GA

The winner for the Plant Manager Award was Jason Harden who serves as Site Operation Manager for Sunny Delight Beverages. Mr. Harden has 10 plus years of experience in manufacturing and maintenance systems with extensive knowledge in warehouse management. He is highly effective in team building and process improvements and recently served on the steering committee for the new Hot Fill Project Installation. In addition, his innovations facilitated the site to produce new configurations for Costco on demand. He has developed processes to rapidly cross train technicians to increase capacity and flexibility. Jason is active in his community with feeding the homeless and working with the Gateway Foundation and Hope House.

Front Line Supervisor Award

Elton Seton of KaMin in Sandersville, GA

The winner for Front Line Supervisor Award was Elton Seton who is the Production Supervisor at KaMin LLC. He is an experienced reliability engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the mining & metals-nonmetals industry. Skilled in AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Root Cause Analysis, Preventative Maintenance, Project Engineering, and Process Optimization, he is a strong operations professional with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Southern University. His first role at KaMin was a maintenance reliability engineer where he transformed the way KaMin processes machine reliability data across their three plants in GA. His community service includes building beds for needy families in Augusta, donating time to help the less fortunate, and servicing as a volunteer at every charitable event that the KaMin hosts.

Charlie Post, the CEO of TSI Solutions, was designated as the Awards Chairman and was responsible for appointing a panel of judges to select the winners. “The Georgia Manufacturing Alliance was established to promote, connect and educate manufacturers across the state,” said Mr. Post. “In support of that mission, the People of Manufacturing Awards was established to recognize the hard work, talents, and achievements of those individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to their company, their co-workers, and the Georgia manufacturing community.”

The Georgia Manufacturing Summit is produced by The Georgia Manufacturing Alliance (GMA). GMA is a membership-based industry organization founded in 2008 to support Georgia’s manufacturing community. GMA provides monthly plant tours, educational sessions, tradeshows, and unique networking opportunities designed to help make profitable business connections for its members. The Georgia Manufacturing Directory, Georgia Manufacturing Calendar and BuyFromGA.com are additional resources produced by GMA. To learn more about the organization, membership, and upcoming events, please call 770-338-0051 or visit their website http://www.GeorgiaManufacturingAlliance.com.

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Growers and buying points assessing peanut crop

TIFTON, Ga – Hurricane Michael devastated Georgia agriculture during the most inopportune time; harvest season for many agricultural commodities. One of those commodities included peanuts, where 50 percent of the crop had been harvested. The remaining 50 percent is yet to be harvested as crop conditions deteriorate and damaged peanut buying points struggle to regain power to dry and grade the peanuts. Many unknowns remain about the devastation of the 2018 Georgia peanut crop.

The Georgia Peanut Commission has been meeting with federal and state officials discussing the current state of the peanut crop and impact on peanut infrastructure. Although it is too early to estimate the financial impact of the disaster, the GPC, working with state and federal officials, will determine as best possible the impact on growers and the industry’s infrastructure once the peanut crop is harvested.

“Hurricane Michael for peanut farmers is still an invisible problem in some locations, because we have peanuts in the ground that haven’t been dug yet and major infrastructure issues with buying points not being able to dry the peanuts or grade them,” says Don Koehler, GPC executive director.

According to the Oct. 15, 2018, crop condition index report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service, the crop condition index for Georgia peanuts dropped 12 percent since the hurricane came through.

“This is the largest decline in the crop condition index over the past years,” says Stanley Fletcher, professor of policy at the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

“It’s really too early to tell the exact loss the peanut industry may face,” says Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension agronomist for peanuts. “There are a lot of factors in play to determine the estimated loss due to delayed harvest in areas where farmers can’t get into the field or issues with infrastructure at peanut buying points where peanuts can’t be dried or graded without power.”

Farmers like Tim Burch of Baker County, Georgia, have not been able to harvest their entire crop. Burch has only been able to harvest 100 of his 600 acres of peanuts.

“This year’s near perfect crop has been nearly destroyed,” Burch says. “The infrastructure has been crippled and if buying points can’t operate, then farmers can’t get back in the field to harvest their crop. We need fair weather for a month so we can get in the remainder of the peanut crop.”

Decatur County farmer Andy Bell agrees with Burch and adds that it is difficult for farmers to get back in the field while they survey the severely injured peanut plants and wonder what type of yield remains below the ground.

“Many of the late planted peanuts are showing vine damage with loss of leaves on the vine and the remaining vine turning yellow,” Bell says. “Simply put, nutrient to the plant is not happening.”

Bell adds, many farmers had to make a choice prior to the hurricane and combine what they had dug under terrible circumstances including wet field conditions. He estimates an average loss of 1,000 pounds per acre in fields harvested prior to the hurricane. Bell says, it remains to be seen the loss following the hurricane from loose shelled kernels, debris in the field and peanut grade, which ultimately lowers the price the farmer receives.

“The process of getting our food from the farmer’s field into our consumers’ hands encompasses a variety of components that often go unnoticed,” says Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary W. Black. “Our farmers depend on these resources and infrastructures to be operational, so they can finish the job they started. We are actively working to assist our partners in repairing damages and regaining power, so the agricultural community can continue with the important task in hand.”

Long time buying point operator, Wesley Powell, owner of Dollar Brothers, Inc. in Decatur County, Georgia, is devastated by the damage.

“In my 30 years of operating Dollar Brothers, this is by far the worst I’ve ever seen and the only insurance claim I have filed in 30 years,” he says. “We had extensive damage to the peanut drying facility and peanut warehouse.”

Powell adds, farmers in his area are slowly getting back into the fields and delivering peanuts to his buying point. He is using generators at this time to dry and grade the peanuts as they are delivered, but it is a slow process compared to normal conditions.

The GPC encourages farmers to attend an upcoming Georgia Farm Service Agency Agriculture Disaster Assistance Meeting scheduled for Monday, Oct. 22 at 2:00 p.m. at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center. Representatives from the USDA FSA, National Resources Conservation Service, Rural Development and Risk Management Agency will be available to provide updates and information regarding disaster programs available for farmers affected by Hurricane Michael.

The GPC plans to continue working with state and federal officials on disaster assistance for growers and industry. As more information becomes available, updates will be added to the GPC website at www.gapeanuts.com.

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