After finishing up lunch at UGA’s Southeast Research and Education Center, tour participants continued their trek to the land of onions. Wait a minute. This is supposed to be the Peanut Tour. What are we doing visiting an onion area? Well, since Georgia is known for its sweet onion, the Vidalia Onion, it is only fitting to learn a little about Georgia’s famous tear-jerker while in this part of the state.

Tour attendees arrived at Vidalia Valley in Lyons, Georgia. Vidalia Valley is owned by the Stanley family, which is a 6^th generation family of Georgia farmers. Brian, R.T. Jr., Tracy and Vince are the current generation to grow the business from a local, seasonal farm to a year-round, multi-location and multi-functional group of integrated businesses. They not only grow the country’s famous Vidalia Onions, they farm over 4,000 acres of other vegetables and row crops. Vidalia Valley, the processing facility, bottles thousands of cases and millions of pounds of peeled and diced onions including reds, whites and yellows, each year. Vidalia Onion Farms, IQF facility, freezes millions of pounds of diced onions, carrots and sweet potatoes each year. Vidalia’s Best, the fresh produce facility, grows and distributes fresh cucumbers, melons and sweet potatoes. When it comes to fresh and processed produce, the Stanley’s and their integrated business are your East coast source for ‘Farm Direct Made Easy.’

During the tour of Vidalia Valley, tour participants were given a tour of the facility. At this particular facility, onions grown by Stanley Farms, as well as outsourced onions are shipped in, peeled and sent into manufacturing or further processing. During Vidalia Onion season, which runs from April to August, representatives from Vidalia Valley said they ship out 40,000 pounds a day of whole, peeled onions. Through Vidalia Valley’s processing facility, products such as relishes, salsas, dressings, vinaigrettes, jams, jellies, specialty items, barbeque and hot sauce, as well as organic products are created. Many of the products can be found on Vidalia Valley’s website, vidaliavalley.com, and some are created for other restaurants and retailers. Vidalia Valley even develops peanut related products for consumers, such as a Thai peanut sauce and a peanut butter barbecue sauce for Paula Dean. Click here for one of Paula’s recipes using the peanut butter barbecue sauce!

View the 2014 Georgia Peanut Photo Album.

After finishing up the final field visit of the day, tour attendees were provided lunch by the Bulloch County Extension Office. During this stop, attendees received a presentation from Shawn Gaines with Golden Peanut Company.

Since tour attendees were unable to visit a shelling plant during the 2014 tour due to location, Shawn Gaines began the presentations by providing a basic overview of the peanut shelling process. Gaines discussed what happens to peanuts from start to finish: buying point receipt to when peanuts are sold to the manufacturer. Gaines also provided an overview of Golden Peanut Company and discussed how Golden is committed to enhancing and maintaining quality. He mentioned how Golden Peanut Company is a leading sheller and processor of peanuts and peanut products. Their primary product lines include raw, shelled and in-shell peanuts, peanut flowers, peanut extracts, roasted aromatic and refined various peanut oils, as well as peanut seed. Golden serves peanut growers and operates plants in all major peanut-growing areas of the United States and Argentina. Their mission statement is to continually improve: themselves, their services, their processes and their products to meet customer needs.

View the 2014 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

After finishing up our field stop in Bulloch County, the Peanut Tour caravan continued on to the Birdsong Ogeechee Buying Point in Brooklet, Georgia. Birdsong Peanuts buys carefully selected peanuts directly from the farmers’ fields. Peanuts are then cleaned, shelled, sized and shipped to manufacturers who turn them into popular food items; from peanut butter to peanut M&Ms.

The Birdsong Ogeechee Buying Point is one of 85 of Birdsong’s buying points located throughout the peanut-growing belt comprised of 11 states extending from Virginia to New Mexico. At the buying points, Birdsong buys and stores farmers’ peanuts until they are ready for processing.

David Rushing, manager of the Ogeechee location welcomed attendees to the buying point by giving them a brief history on the location. He stated the Ogeechee location started in 1990 by a farm family in the area, and in January 2011, Birdsong Peanuts purchased it. The buying point receives peanuts from five nearby counties and employs three full-time employees, one part-time employee and up to 20 employees during harvest season. Due to weather conditions, they have not begun processing loads from the 2014 crop.

During the visit, attendees had the opportunity to view Birdsong’s sampling process, grading room, drying facility and storage warehouse. The sampling process is the first step the peanuts go through when they arrive at the buying point. A pneumatic sampler, or gig, is used to sample the peanuts brought into the buying point in a peanut wagon. The sampler has a probe which is inserted into the wagon and pulls out approximately 1,800 grams or peanuts. A different probe pattern is used on each trailer to obtain samples from front to back of the trailer. This ensures an accurate sample is obtained. The sampling process can take up to 15 minutes to complete depending on foreign material content. During the busy time of harvest, this buying point samples approximately 150 loads per day.

Once the peanuts are sampled from the wagon, the sample is taken to the grading room for inspection, dried with large peanut driers where they are heated up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and then transferred to the storage facility. Before being placed in dry storage, the peanuts must have less than six percent foreign material and approximately 10 percent moisture. Once this is complete, they are stored in a warehouse before being used for manufacturing.

This year is special for Birdsong Peanuts as they are celebrating their 100 year anniversary! Kevin Calhoun with Birdsong gave attendees a little background information on Birdsong as a company. He said the company is a five generation, family-owned business. They take pride in their food safety programs, worker safety programs and quality control. If you eat products made with U.S.-grown peanuts, chances are you have consumed peanuts from Birdsong!

To go along with this stop, tour attendees had a special treat. Refreshments and grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were served to those who wanted a quick snack while at the buying point.

To view a video on peanut grading presented by Randall Taylor with Georgia Federal State Inspection Service, click the video below.

View the 2014 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

To conclude the Hot Topics session, Dr. Bob Kemerait, extension plant pathologist at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, spoke to tour attendees about the way technology and improved processes are being used to grow peanuts in other areas of the world. As a part of the peanut industry in Georgia, Kemerait believes Georgia peanut farmers have the opportunity to improve the lives of very deserving and hardworking people in developing countries of the tropics by helping to improve their peanut industry – from planting to processing, to value-added. According to Kemerait, areas Georgia farmers can extend technologies to underdeveloped countries include: improved varieties; improved pest management; improved use of fertilizers; improved understanding of harvest maturity; improved equipment for land preparation; improved equipment for harvest; improved equipment for shelling; and management of aflatoxin.

Even though it is important to extend the use of technology to those who need it most, Kemerait says it is important to be cautious. Care should be taken not to unrealistically raise expectations when cost and/or availability is questionable. Considerations for local markets (local preferences) and considerations of chemical use should be recognized, as well as consideration of how labor-saving devices could affect job opportunities – especially for women.

When participating in outreach to developing countries, careful coordination with in-country partners should be exercised and careful consideration for impact and unforeseen consequences should be done. Dr. Kemerait also believes it is important to provide education for growers, production guides as references and training for local leaders Without these things, the success of the country is unlikely.

Following the presentation from USAID, Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins spoke with tour attendees about genomics. According to Ozias-Akins, genomics is the study of the structure and function of the total complement (DNA) of an organism. The genome sequence of the peanut plant’s progenitors is facilitating rapid discovery of molecular differences between cultivated peanut varieties. These differences are being tested for linkage to traits of importance to growers and industry. Discovering linkages will enable application of molecular tools to breeding in order to more rapidly combine traits of interest. As many folks know, the peanut-genome was released earlier this year. According to Ozias-Akins, the peanut is complicated genetically. This is due primarily to the fact it is a polyploid.

During her presentation, Dr. Ozias-Akins described DNA and how it works. DNA is strand of As, Ts, Cs and Gs. Each letter stands for a specific molecule or nucleotide that form strands. Each strand is a chromosome. The peanut has 40 chromosomes – 20 from each ancestor. There are over 2 billion molecules in the peanut genome. The process of understanding the genome sequence is extremely tedious and time-consuming. Technologies for sequencing has advanced over the last several years, and because of this, the cost to sequence is much less and more feasible to sequence crop genomes such as peanuts.

Dr. Ozias-Akins then went on to discuss molecular markers. She described what markers were and how they are important. The use of molecular markers as a substitute for phenotypic selection, aka marker-assisted breeding, requires that marker-phenotype associations be identified. These markers are potentially most useful for recessive traits, stacking genes for traits, quantitative traits and difficult phenotypes. The genome project is not just about generating sequence, but applying it in breeding.

Dr. Nathan Smith, extension economist with the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, provided an update on the 2014 Farm Bill during the Hot Topics session. His presentation’s goal was to give tour attendees more information about the Farm Bill, including new changes and ways it will affect peanuts. Included in his presentation was a summary of the new Farm Bill, particularly as it relates to peanuts. Smith stated we have had the same Farm Bill since 2008. This new program will repeal DCP and ACRE programs and eliminate direct payments and counter-cyclical payments. It also establishes new commodity programs for all covered commodities, excluding cotton. Price Loss Coverage (PLC), or price safety net and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC), or revenue safety net will be options for farmers. This updated program establishes a new “shallow loss” insurance policy called supplemental coverage option (SCO), which will be available for commodities enrolled in PLC and non-STAX cotton. This will be available beginning in 2015.

Smith stated the marketing assistance loan did not change much. Peanut storage and handling cost pretty much stayed the same, as well.

Producers must make a choice for 2014 – an election between PLC, County ARC and individual (Farm) ARC. They have a one-time opportunity to relocate their base acres and update payment yields, which would be used on the PLC program. Farmers’ crop insurance decisions will be yield protection or revenue protection, as well as coverage level. Also, they will be deciding if they want to buy the SCO option if they choose PLC.

To give attendees an update for Georgia, Smith provided statistics on Georgia’s participation. According to Smith, Georgia had 2,983,213 base acres in 2009. This acreage was heavy in cotton and peanut base.

In reference to generic base, Smith stated cotton base becomes generic base in the new bill. Also, generic base does not change during the life of the Farm Bill. Generic base can be used on a year-to-year basis to temporary allocate to a covered commodity (excluding cotton) planted. He said it was important to note a covered commodity must be planted to be eligible for any generic base allocation.

Overall, program decisions for peanuts will be pretty straight forward for most cases. Other crops will be more complicated driven by price outlook. Options for reallocation base and updating yields will vary on a farm by farm, case by case basis because of dynamics of landowner and tenant relationships.