From the Director
Crimson clover is blooming on roadsides, pecan trees are leafing out, and preparation for warm season crop planting has begun. We have high hopes that this growing season’s weather will be as favorable for crop growth as it was last year. In April we will celebrate the new growing season on the Milton campus with our multi-day Spring Festival of Flowers that draws thousands of people from across the Florida Panhandle and beyond.
Our highly productive faculty have been busy with field work and other aspects of academia such as publishing refereed journal articles, garnering grant funds, and winning awards as shown in sections below. Our graduate students have been successful in winning presentation competitions and in getting scholarships and fellowships. Our undergraduate numbers have increased to pre-pandemic levels. A new weed scientist, Dr. Ednaldo Borgato, joined us in November and we anticipate him developing great research and extension programs in the coming years. We have finished interviews for a Senior Lecturer to coordinate our undergraduate teaching program and hope to have that position filled before the summer semester begins. We continue to look forward with excitement to the completion of the graduate student dormitories at the Jay Research Facility in 2025. I’m hopeful that dormitory construction will begin soon.
I’m proud of the accomplishments of our productive faculty, staff, and students, and continue to believe the WFREC’s future is bright. I thank you for taking the time to read about our accomplishments, and I invite you to attend and participate in any of our upcoming events that are mentioned in this newsletter. Until then, GO GATORS!
2025 NC246 Conference at the Hampton Inn on Pensacola Beach, FL.
Prescribed Burn at the WFREC Jay Research Facility with Dr. Carissa Wonkka and her technician Justin McKeithen!
Dr. Hardeep Singh and Ethan Carter hosted the 2025 Cotton Advisory Group Meetings this week in Jay and Marianna FL. Thanks to all our presenters Katie Stofer, Lakesh Sharma, Drs. Rizwan Rafique, Cheryl Mackowiak, Carolina Baruzzi, Ednaldo Borgato, Sudeep Sidhu, Isaac Esquivel and Silvana Paula-Moraes!
WFREC Graduate Student Gathering in March!
Honors and Awards
Drs. Hardeep Singh, Silvana Paula-Moraes and Ednaldo Borgato were honored to be guest speakers at the Escambia County Extension Winter meeting in Atmore, AL on February 17th!
Congratulations to all our winners at the 2025 Florida Stakeholder Engagement Program (STEP) Cotton Contest Banquet that was held at the WFREC. Congratulations to Melvin Farms $500, Brandt Plants $500, High Cotton $1,500, Team Baker $2,000, and our first place winner Southgen $2,500!
Nkem Nwosu, Noah Weidig, and Aminia Twaibu have been awarded a travel grant to attend the Graduate Student Research Day on April 8th. Up to $300 of allowable travel costs will be paid. Congratulations to you all!
Welcome New Employees and Skill Bridge Interns to the WFREC
2025 Refereed Publications
Ivey, M. A., C. L. Wonkka, N. C. Weidig, and V. M. Donovan. 2024. Woody Cover Fuels Large Wildfire Risk in the Eastern US. Geophysical Research Letters 51:e2024GL110586.
Boland, K., McGranahan, D. A., Geaumont, B., Wonkka, C. L., Ott, J. P., & Kreuter, U. P. (2025). Perceptions of prescribed fire among ranchers near northern US National Grasslands. Fire, 8(3), 102.
Kaur, N., Sharma, A.K., Shellenbarger, H., Griffin, W., Serrano, T., Brym, Z., Singh, A., Singh, H., Sandhu, H. and Sharma, L.K. (2025). Drone and handheld sensors for hemp: Evaluating NDVI and NDRE in relation to nitrogen application and crop yield. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, 8(1), p.e70075. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70075
Nwosu, N.J., Upadhyaya, Y.R., Kaur, N., Sharma, L., Brym, Z. and Singh, H. (2025). Limited effects of phosphorus application on growth and yield of industrial hemp in Florida. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, 8(1), p.e70077. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70077
Serrano, T., Brym, Z.T., Monserrate, L.A., Her, Y.G., Stanford, J., Bhadha, J.H., Singh, H., Sharma, L.K., Upadhyaya, Y.R., Griffin, W.D. and Shellenbarger, H.T. (2025). Nitrogen Fertilizer Effects on Hemp Biomass Production Detected by Drone-based Spectral Imaging. HortScience, 60(3), pp.353-361. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18264-24
Dar, E. A., Omara, P., Iboyi, J. E., Mulvaney, M. J., Carter, E., Wood, C. W., Sharma, L., and Singh, H. (2025). Optimizing nitrogen rates for rainfed cotton on sandy loam soils of Florida. Agronomy Journal, e70046. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.70046
Bajwa P., Saini R., Singh S., Makkar J., Trostle C., and Singh H. (2025). Effect of early and late POST emergence herbicides on weed suppression, crop injury, and biomass yield of industrial hemp. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70078
2025 Grant Funding
Dr. Hardeep Singh, Determining Peanut Peg Strength and Digging Losses for Different Cultivars and Planting Patterns (National Peanut Board, $20,000)