Max DeMott, Mitchell County Extension Coordinator, provided information to the Georgia Peanut Tour attendees regarding agriculture production in Mitchell County. There were a total of 32,098 acres planted this year and seventy-seven percent of the peanuts are irrigated, with twenty-three percent being dryland. Concerning the estimated peanut production in tons for the county, he says that county averages around 4,000-4,500 lbs. This year will be much higher. Some dryland fields have already been harvested at 4,500 lbs. The major crops in Mitchell County include cotton, peanuts, field corn, pecans, sweet corn (in order of acres planted). Insects and disease have been some of the most troublesome production issues for area farmers this year. However, DeMott says that so far the peanut crop in the county looks excellent.
Author: joycrosby
How do Farmers Know When to Dig Peanuts?
The question many folks on the 2012 Georgia Peanut Tour wonder is, “How do farmers know when to dig their peanuts?” Farmers utilize the hull scrape method and peanut profile board to determine when to dig and the resulting yield and grade means money to farmers. Farmers also have to look at the date the peanuts were planted and count the days to maturity. In the last 20 days of the production season peanuts gain in yield and some put on 30 percent of their yield in the last two to three weeks of the growing season. Farmers can’t just ride by their fields to know when to dig and they can’t put the peanuts back in the ground after digging. Peanuts are an indeterminate crop and some fields planted on the same date may mature at different times based on cultivar selection, soil type or weather patterns. The Peanut Profile Board was created more than 30 years ago. View this video below of Max DeMott II, Mitchell County Extension Agent, as he discusses how farmers determine when it is time to dig their peanuts.
A New Twist on the Original PB&J – Try it Grilled
Each year on the Georgia Peanut Tour attendees are treated to Grilled PB&Js. Yes, that’s right – they are grilled! Thanks to Tyron Spearman of the National Peanut Buying Points Association for visiting with the group and grilling sandwich. According to Tyron the trick is to mix your peanut butter and jelly before spreading it on your bread. Then coat the outside with butter and grill just like you would a grill cheese sandwich. Check out this quick video highlighting a new twist to America’s favorite sandwich.
Rain Is A Good Thing….So Is Irrigation!
Our second stop of the day on the Peanut Tour was in Camilla, Ga., at the Stripling Irrigation Research Park. The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences operates this state-of-the-art irrigation research and education center as part of their efforts in agricultural irrigation. We hopped on trolleys and took to the research plots to listen to the latest in irrigation research from the UGA scientists. When rain is not an option for our hard working farmers, we turn to irrigation and our researchers.
Up, Up, and Away We Go!
What a fantastic way to start off the last day of the Peanut Tour at Thrush Aircraft in Albany, Ga. The staff and participants on the 2012 Peanut Tour were given an opportunity most would love to have. As the tour began I looked like a kid on Christmas morning when they see their gifts from Santa. From start to finish I saw first hand how the aircrafts were built from the guts of the motor to the paint on the body and tail. Before today I never knew exactly how something so powerful and intelligent like an aircraft was built and exactly who was behind it. But now I can stand firm and say that there are many hard working men and women who work at Thrush Aircraft who put in long hours to make the machines perform to their best ability. My advice to you….take a tour and see what they have to offer!
Southern Hospitality, Low-Country Boil and Peanut Butter Icecream
The Georgia Peanut Tour focuses on educating attendees about the quality of Georgia peanuts. However, the tour also promises to tout true Southern hospitality and great food while on the tour. This year is no exception! Tour attendees were treated to a reception sponsored by the American Peanut Shellers Association on Wednesday night and then a low-country boil sponsored by Dow AgroSciences. Marvin Stewart, regional sales rep. with Dow AgroSciences, has attended all 26 peanut tours and also cooked the low-country boil for every tour. At the end of the night Marvin and his team of Dow folks served ice cream and this year everyone has three different kinds to sample from including Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate with Peanut Butter swirls or Snickers ice cream. All three were fabulous and a great way to end the evening at Chehaw Educational Center.
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Keep the Aflatoxins out with JLA Global
JLA Global is a peanut quality control testing corporation that has facilities all over the world. Today, the participants on the Georgia Peanut Tour visited the laboratory that is located in Albany, GA. The lab offers a variety of tests for many different diseases in multiple commodities. Participants learned specifically of disease testing in peanuts, mainly aflatoxin. The peanuts are sent from shellers and manufacturers to ensure their safety to see that the consumer receives the best product possible.
Dougherty County Ag Update
The Georgia Peanut Tour centered this year out of Albany, Ga. which is located in Dougherty County. The local Extension Coordinator, James Morgan, provided an update on agriculture in the area. He says the peanut crop in Dougherty County looks good to excellent this year. 85% of peanuts are irrigated and 15% non-irrigated, and the estimated peanut production in the county is 5,500-6,000lbs. Peanuts are one of the major crops grown in Dougherty County as well as pecans, corn, cotton, soybean and wheat. There have been some weather-related issues troubling some farmers such as white mold disease in some peanut fields, but, again, the peanut crop looks good. Other information Morgan included highlighted peanut-related industries such as Tara Foods, Mars Chocolate, Thrush Aircraft and more. Learn more about Dougherty County through the Extension Service office.
Peanut Breeding and Genetics at the Bolton Farm
Charles Chen, Associate Professor and Geneticist/Peanut Breeder, shared information with tour attendees about a peanut breeding, genetics, and genome program conducted by Auburn University and the USDA-ARS National Peanut Research Laboratory that was established in 2007. The major objectives of the research are developing cultivators with desirable improved traits adapted to all U.S. peanut producing regions; and enhancing elite peanut germplasm through conventional and genomic approaches, and genetic transformation. The program focuses on high yield, resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus, leaf spot, maturity, and seed characteristics (size, split, taste et al.). High oil content, high oleic and low linoleic, and drought tolerance are also emphasized. The program goals are to understand the genetic principles of important agronomic traits in peanuts; to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying the desired traits in peanuts; to explore genetic potential from genes to genomes for peanut improvement, and to discover new genes related to desirable agronomic and seed quality traits.
Peanut Research at NPRL’s Bolton Farm
Georgia Peanut Tour attendees were able to see first hand the ongoing research programs at the USDA/ARS National Peanut Research Lab’s Bolton Farm in Terrell County, Ga. NPRL conducts a variety of projects to assist the peanut industry focusing on environmental research, systems research, flavor/quality research, peanut grading research, storage research and mycotoxin research with particular emphasis on the aflatoxins. The Laboratory conducts research toward improving quality, cleaning, storing and marketing of peanuts. Research is oriented toward solving the major problems confronting the peanut producer, handler, manufacturer, and the consumer. NPRL is also intricately involved in studies toward developing new and improved production marketing systems to reduce unit cost, enhance domestic and foreign use of peanuts and provide a safe, high quality product to the consumer. The tour visited the Bolton Farm of NPRL and here’s a few highlights from the tour. . .
Phat Dang, Research Chemist
The process of regeneration and transformation allows us to transfer genes from different species that can confer either disease resistance or drought resistance that we couldn’t do through traditional breeding. We’ve identified that leaf spot is one of our initial targets that allows the combination of traditional breeding. Selecting varieties that already have higher levels of resistance but adding another gene to that will provide an even higher level of resistance . We are hoping that farmers can reduce their spray schedule and hopefully eliminate that spray schedule.
Ron Sorenson, Research Agronomist
The drip irrigation is very easy. Farmers can take normal drip irrigation they would use for vegetables and we bury it 2 to 3 inches in the ground and put in a main line. Bury so that it is alternate row middles and it costs about $300 per acre for the cost of tubing and main line. A farmer can irrigate and leave the drip tubing in the ground for about three years and use strip tillage and plant cotton, corn and peanut. When a farmer grows peanuts on the third year then they would remove the tubing prior to digging. So far, Sorenson has seen a 7 time yield increase for corn compared to dryland, a 3 times yield increase for cotton and 1 and a quarter times yield in increase for peanuts. However, he says a lot of that tends to deal with the way peanuts grow. He says they tend to hunker down with dry weather and sit and wait for the rain and then put on the yield when it rains.
Marshall Lamb – NPRL Research Leader
We’ve been looking at ways to improve the maturity distribution and the flavor of peanuts by reducing the amount of immature peanuts that come on the peanut plant as we are getting ready to harvest the most mature. The peanut being an indeterminate crop will basically bloom, flower and produce fruit until it dies. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes that causes us problems because the immature peanuts can reduce grade and actually take energy away from those that are trying to become more mature and they also give us a lot of problems when we are drying and processing peanuts by mainly giving us an off flavor. We have found that with two chemical treatments we can break the flower cycle for about 20 days and that’s what we are after. With very little or minimal damage to the foliage. That did result when we did our maturity distributions in a lot more mature kernels on the peanuts compared to non-treated. If we have less immature peanuts and can take the energy and partition it to the more mature peanuts on the vine then hopefully that will improve yield and grade for the grower.