Author: joycrosby

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Overview of Seeding Rate Research

The Georgia Peanut Tour attendees learned about the research conducted by University of Georgia Peanut Team members while touring the Southwest Georgia Research and Education Center in Plains, Georgia. Scott Tubbs, UGA cropping systems agronomist, discussed some of his research projects focusing on seeding rates when planting. Most of his work focuses on peanut agronomic research, but he also does additional work in cropping systems related to rotations that are built around peanuts and other major crops that are grown in our systems.

He conducts research at multiple locations throughout the state so that the research is representative of all growing areas across the state. Research is conducted at the University of Georgia Southwest Research and Education Center in Plains, the  Southeast Research and Education Center in Midville, the Attapulgus Research and Education Center in the Southwest corner of Georgia and the UGA Tifton Campus. So his research covers the entire state, lots of different soil and climate types to test our trials in multiple different soils and different weather pattern conditions.

The research trial he is conducting at the Plains Research and Education Center is a grow pattern and seeding rate treatment effect on six different cultivars of peanuts. He is testing six different varieties that were bred in four different programs from our public breeding institutions which include: University of Georgia, Auburn University, University of Florida, and the USDA ARS Breeding Programs. This trial is looking at twin row versus single row peanut using three different seeding rates of 5, 6 and 7 seed per foot for each one of those varieties.

In years past, he has conducted some similar research and noticed that the twin row row pattern will support a slightly higher seeding rate than the single row row pattern for maximizing yield potential. Results have shown that farmers can sometimes actually reduce their seeding rate a little bit lower in single row without losing yield potential. However, farmers may run into potentially some tomato spotted wilt virus interactions by reducing seeding rate at certain times of the year with certain varieties that are more susceptible to that virus.

View the 2019 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

 

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Growing Peanuts for the Organic Market

Tour attendees visited the farm of Sedrick Rowe in Americus, Georgia, to learn more about organic peanut production. Rowe is a first-generation farmer who started growing organic peanuts two years ago. He is currently growing 12 acres of organic peanuts in Americus and 12 acres of organic peanuts in Dougherty County, Georgia. He grows corn for his rotation crop and grows rye and wheat for a cover crop. Rowe planted the peanut variety Georgia-12Y this year. He currently markets his peanuts through a combined effort with other organic growers through the Georgia Organic Peanut Association. Some of the organic peanuts are sold to Georgia Grinders Peanut Butter.

sed rowe

Sedrick Rowe, organic peanut farmer in Americus, Georgia.

Rowe says the main issues he has faced with growing organic peanuts is weed control with the limited amount of chemicals he can use. Attendees on the tour were able to view Rowe’s field and see some of the morningglory weed that Rowe had issues with this year. Rowe uses a Kubota M7060 tractor, a rolling cultivator to loosen the soil and help control weeds and weed wiper. He also hand pulls some of the weeds in the field. He also uses a two-row peanut digger at harvest. This year he is purchasing a peanut combine from Ag Pro in Blakely to harvest his peanuts.

sed rowe organic peanuts

Organic peanut field.

Founded in 2019, the Georgia Organic Peanut Association (GOPA) is a farmer-owned cooperative incorporated in the state of Georgia to market USDA Certified Organic peanuts and other agricultural products. The cooperative’s small farmers come from across the state and have almost 50 years of combined experience growing organic crops. The organization is committed to bringing added value to established farming operations and to creating new opportunities for small and beginning producers in the region.

Organic peanuts in Georgia are sold through a combined partnership to Georgia Grinders.

Organic peanuts in Georgia are sold through a combined partnership to Georgia Grinders.

In 2018, with financial support from the USDA Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement and the Bradley-Turner Foundation, Georgia Organics led a one-year project to develop a supply chain and marketplace around Certified Organic peanuts that could support small farmers.

The following video from Anthony-Masterson is an overview of that collaboration. Click here to view the video.

View the 2019 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

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2019 Georgia Peanut Crop Update

The Georgia Peanut Tour kicked off with a Hot Topics Seminar on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Lake Blackshear Golf Resort in Cordele. During the seminar Scott, Monfort, University of Georgia Extension Peanut Agronomist. According to Monfort the 2019 peanut crop pretty much the same as most years but the weather is not what you would consider a normal
year. Georgia growers planted approximately 650,000 acres of peanuts in 2019. At the beginning of the season, farmers started out in a good situation where they had plenty of moisture and heat to get the peanuts planted earlier than the last couple of
years. Then the weather changed and farmers ran out of moisture real quick and the weather turned hot. The temperatures soared to 90+ degrees and the middle to latter part of May all the way through today. We’ve had a tremendous amount of 90 degree temperatures all the way through the growing season this year with a limited amount of moisture. We did get moisture but it was pretty limited for the most part.

So when you start to look at the crop this year, there’s several things participants will notice on the tour. The irrigated peanuts which are about 50% of our peanuts look above average, because again they had the heat to push the crop but they also had the moisture. You can put on the moisture at any given moment during that period. Where we have problems that we are worried about right now is the non-irrigated crop and in any given year, we talk about how Mother Nature can throw a curve ball at us, in pockets or regions of Georgia but this year its all over. There have been some areas that received moisture at the right times and so there are some non irrigated crops that look just as good as irrigated crops. But, when you look at the average of non irrigated crop, it’s going to be below what we typically like to see yield and quality wise.

Georgia farmers have had problems with tomato spotted wilt virus, as well as, lesser corn salt borers and diseases. We are dealing with that and that’s going to cause some problems but overall the hot dry conditions is the major issue that we are dealing with.

Farmers are in the harvest season right now, it is the second week of September. We have been digging and harvesting peanuts for approximately a week a half now. Some of those are because we planted earlier, and we were able to mature those out and needed to come out of the ground to be harvested. A lot of those especially the irrigated crop looks pretty good. They are yielding very well as well as grading well – the quality is good at this time. As far as the non irrigated crop, farmers were able to save some of that crop by digging early because it did not put on any more peanuts beyond a certain period. So, they are digging those peanuts as well.

View the 2019 Georgia Peanut Photo Album.

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Hot Topics Seminar

The Hot Topics Seminar provided tour attendees with an overview of peanut production. Attendees learned from specialists with the University of Georgia Peanut Team regarding topics on land preparation, seed selection, planting, soil nutrition and fertilizer applications, plant growth physiology, insect management, disease management, maturity and harvest decisions.

Download the Hot Topics Seminar presentations below:

Seed Selection, Land Preparation and Planting – Dr. Scott Tubbs
Soil Nutrition and Fertilizer Applications – Dr. Glen Harris
Plant Growth Physiology – Dr. Cristiane Pilon
Insect Populations and Management – Dr. Mark Abney
Disease Incidence and Management – Dr. Bob Kemerait
Maturity and Harvest Decisions – Dr. Scott Monfort

View the 2019 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

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Welcome to the 33rd annual Georgia Peanut Tour

2019gpt_logo_flatWe would like to welcome each of you to the 2019 Georgia Peanut Tour. Whether this is your first time with us or you are a “Peanut Tour Veteran,” we are very happy to host you on our 33rd annual tour. As in previous years, you will be immersed in the production efforts of one of Georgia’s most important agricultural crops and we hope this gives you better insight not only into the challenges our farmers face, but also reasons why we say that the world’s best peanuts are produced in Georgia. It is our hope that you will come to better understand and appreciate the heritage of peanut production in our state. Those engaged in the peanut industry, including farmers, buyers, processors, researchers, Extension personnel, and Georgia Peanut Commission representatives, are proud that Georgia is the leading peanut producing state in the United States and we are excited to share this year’s crop with you.

The 2019 Georgia Peanut Tour is staged in the central region of our state’s production area and begins on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 17, with a “Hot Topics” symposium. Expert speakers will address the current status of our peanut crop and provide a special focus on peanut production practices. UGA researchers will discuss topics including planting, soil nutrition, physiology, insects, diseases, maturity and harvest decision.

The next two days of the tour provide you an opportunity to learn more about production, research, processing and more. Field visits will provide you with a glimpse of conventional and organic peanut production, harvest and precision agriculture at the farm of Sed Rowe in Americus, Chase Farms in Oglethorpe and Dawson Brothers Farm in Hawkinsville, Georgia. University of Georgia and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers will provide you with updates on groundbreaking research projects they have at the Southwest Georgia Research and Education Center in Plains, as well as the USDA National Peanut Research Lab in Dawson, Georgia. The tour also includes visits down the supply chain to Sasser 520 Peanut Buying Point where attendees will have an opportunity to learn how peanuts are graded, cleaned, dried, and stored in warehouses. Attendees will also tour Agri AFC in Cordele, Golden Peanut and Tree Nut sheller and Nolin Steel in Ashburn and Hardy Farms Peanut Boiling Facility in Hawkinsville, Georgia.

Again, on behalf of the Peanut Tour Committee, with members from the USDA-ARS Peanut Lab, the Georgia Peanut Commission and the University of Georgia, I warmly welcome you to the 33rd annual Georgia Peanut Tour! We hope that over the next few days you will better appreciate the complexity of the peanut industry in Georgia and the personal commitments from all involved in producing the world’s finest peanuts! We hope our events will allow for fellowship and that you enjoy Georgia’s hospitality exploring a beautiful, rural part of our state. We offer our sincere thanks to all the sponsors, who through their generosity, help make this tour possible. Please do not hesitate to let us know how we can help you as we travel the highways and byways of our state’s production area. We are proud of our peanut farmers and our peanut industry; we are happy that we can share them with you.

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2019 Georgia Peanut Tour set for Cordele area

2019gpt_logo_flatThe thirty-third annual Georgia Peanut Tour will be held September 17-19, 2019, in Cordele, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The tour brings the latest information on peanuts while giving a first-hand view of industry infrastructure from production and handling to processing and utilization. Tour stops will be made in several peanut producing counties surrounding Cordele.

Attendees can expect to see first-hand nearly every aspect of peanut production in the state. This year’s tour hosts many exciting stops including on-farm harvest demonstrations and clinics, as well as, research at the University of Georgia Southwest Georgia Research and Education Center.

The Georgia Peanut Commission, University of Georgia-Tifton Campus and Griffin Campus, Southwest Research & Education Center, Attapulgus Research & Education Center, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service National Peanut Research Lab coordinate the tour.

Registration will be opening soon. For sponsorship infomation, contact Hannah Jones at hannah@gapeanuts.com or call at 229-386-3470.

* Update – the host hotel, Lake Blackshear Resort & Golf Club is currently full. An overflow of rooms are available at Comfort Inn in Cordele, Ga. Rooms can be booked by calling 229-273-7117 and asking for the Georgia Peanut Tour rate. Buses will depart from the Comfort Inn each morning of the tour and return following the evening meal.

Download Sponsorship Info
Download Registration Form
Download Tour Schedule
View list of registered attendees
Download driving directions for Wednesday, Sept. 18
Download driving directions for Thursday, Sept. 19

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Growing the Organic Peanut Market

2018_gpt_savannah_0407sAttendees on the Georgia Peanut Tour learned about challenges organic farmers face with producing peanuts at the farm of Al Clark. He started farming in 1979 and began transitioning to organic production in 2007. Today Clark grows approximately 276 acres of organic peanuts, corn and soybeans at Healthy Hollow Farms in Brooklet, Georgia.

In 2018, Clark planted 20 acres of peanuts in two varieties — including Georgia 06-G and the less popular Georgia 12Y, which has proved promising in an organic system due to a viney growth habit that enables it potentially to outcompete weeds and general disease tolerance. Clark sourced untreated seeds and used a garlic-based inoculant (a mixture of neem and BacPac) at planting time, noticing better germination and foliage development among 06-G plants where the rate of this inoculant was doubled. This early growth, commonly referred to as “plant stand,” is key for organic peanut plants to overcome weed and pest pressure.

Despite a good stand, Clark has continued to struggle with weeds this season. While it has been shown that organic peanuts can be grown successfully in Georgia, the single biggest challenge is weeds, which in the Deep South can be diverse and aggressive. Organic growers do not have effective herbicides in their toolbox, which means they must rely on timely mechanical cultivation to kill weeds before they can get a foothold. But with constant rains throughout 2018, Clark could not get into his fields he needed to cultivate.

2018_gpt_savannah_0426sHowever, in recent years, Clark has employed an electrifying new technique: a lightning weeder. A long journey to North Dakota resulted in this purchase, which uses electricity run across a conductive bar running horizontal to the ground, above the sprawling peanuts, to electrocute tall weeds in the field. Although not effective on grasses, for weeds such as the prolific pigweed with a center stalk and deep taproot, the lightning weeder has a chance to shine (or, to be more literal, flame).

The lightning weeder does not come without limitations: scarcity, cost, and the huge amounts of power it uses. And even with successful weed control, there are still obstacles in producing organic peanuts. There is a lack of high quality, untreated seed for growers, and a lack of marketing power for organic Georgia Grown peanuts due to the smaller acreage and lack of infrastructure. In a Certified Organic system, each step from harvest to handling to processing has to be certified through the National Organic Program. With the scale of peanut production and associated infrastructure in Georgia so large, and the acreage of organic production so small in comparison, there can be little economic benefit to going through the certification process for shellers in Georgia. And without organic shellers to maintain the certification of the peanuts, there is a lack of supply for the marketplace.

And this is where Georgia Organics plays a role. Through a combination of USDA and private grants, and a partnership with the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Georgia Organics has been working with farmers actively growing or interested in growing organic peanuts to share production best practices, develop marketplace connections, address issues of seed supply, and facilitate the growth of organic peanuts in the peanut capital of the world to meet the high demand for Georgia-Grown Certified Organic Peanut products.

To learn more about Georgia Organics, organic peanuts in Georgia, and upcoming opportunities and events, contact Perri at perri@georgiaorganics.org.

View the 2018 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

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Peanut Research at Southeast Georgia Research and Education Center

2018_gpt_savannah_0345sThe Southeast Georgia Research and Education Center lies in the upper Coastal Plain near Midville, Georgia. Just south of the fall line, the 719-acre center was established in 1952, when Burke County deeded the land to the University System Board of Regents.

Orien L. Brooks served as the first superintendent and remained so until his death in 1978. Charles Perry was the second superintendent and now Anthony Black holds the title.

Originally concentrating on chicken, beef cattle and dairy research, today the facility’s efforts are focused on row crop research. Peanuts, soybeans, alfalfa, corn, cotton, sorghum and potential biofuel crops are studied.

Variety testing, pest management strategies, fertilizer application rates, seeding rates and disease management research programs are also in place. The center is the only UGA research location where UGA scientists study cylindrocladium black rot, a fungal disease first found in 1965 on peanuts in southwest Georgia. Today, CBR plagues alfalfa, clover and soybean as well.

Four full-time employees maintain research projects for UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences researchers conducting research at Midville. During the 2018 Georgia Peanut Tour attendees were able to see the on-going research projects involving peanuts.

View the 2018 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

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First Point of Delivery – Tillman and Deal Buying Point

2018_gpt_savannah_0079sOn the first stop of the 32nd annual Georgia Peanut Tour, attendees visited Tillman and Deal Peanut Buying Point in Statesboro, Georgia. The new buying point opened in the fall of 2017 and buys peanuts for Premium Peanut, a peanut sheller based out of Douglas, Georgia. Premium Peanut owns and operates the newest and largest peanut shelling facility in the world. The shelling plant was founded in the fall of 2014 when seven buying points in South Georgia came together to form Premium Peanut. The shelling facility is grower-owned and was designed to integrate the peanut production process, stabilize the market for growers in the region, and ensure a stable supply of peanuts at a competitive cost.

The Premium Peanut shelling facility was designed with the best and newest equipment in the industry, possessing a shelling capacity of over 300,000 tons of peanuts per year. In January of 2016, one month ahead of schedule, shelling operations began on the 2015 harvested crop. In 2018, Premium Peanut expanded to include a filtered crude peanut oil facility located adjacent to the shelling plant. The new operation has the capacity to produce more than 3 million gallons of peanut oil per year.

Tillman and Deal is the first-place farmers deliver their peanuts to at harvest time. The peanut buying point receive, weigh, clean, dry, inspect, grade and prepare peanuts for storage and shelling. All United States produced peanuts must be inspected by the Federal-State Inspection Service at a registered peanut buying point.

2018_gpt_savannah_0076sTillman and Deal buys peanuts from approximately 30 farmers in the area and grades and stores nearly 30,000 tons annually. As peanuts enter the buying point, a sample is taken to determine the moisture level of the peanuts. All peanuts need to be at least 10.5 percent moisture level or below. If the peanuts are above 10.5 percent in moisture then the peanuts are dried in the wagons to decrease the moisture level. The semi-trailers are hooked up to large dryers where air flows through the peanuts and dry them at 105 degrees F. The semi-trailers hold 30 tons of peanuts per load.

2018_gpt_savannah_0107sOnce the peanuts are dry then a sample is taken from the trailer where the peanuts are graded by the Georgia Federal-State Inspection Service. Peanuts are classed by weight, damage and foreign material. If the sample has more than 7 percent foreign material then the peanuts need to run through the cleaner. Once clean, peanuts are put in elevator and placed on a conveyor belt for storage in a warehouse that can hold 15,000 tons of peanuts. Currently, Tillman and Deal only stores the peanut variety, Georgia O6G, in the warehouse on site. All other varieties grown by farmers in the area are shipped directly to Premium Peanut for storage.

Once peanuts leave the buying point and shelling plant then they are shipped by train or semi-trailers to manufacturers who process peanut butter, candy products or delicious roasted peanuts.

View the 2018 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.

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2018 Georgia Peanut Crop Update

The Georgia Peanut Tour kicked off with a Hot Topics Seminar on Tuesday, Sept. 18. During the seminar Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension peanut agronomist provided an update on the 2018 Georgia peanut crop. According to Monfort, farmers have a very good crop to look at although we have had several challenges that we have had to face in 2018. We’ve had a lot of rain and we usually don’t complain about rain, but this year we’ve had a tremendous amount of rain throughout the growing year and it has caused some of the crop to be quite a bit late. The peanut production has basically divided into two crops this year. We’ve got our early crop and our late crop and for the most part we are just now getting to dig this early crop and it looks pretty good right now. We are dealing with diseases and insect problems as well as some harvest problems just because of the rain we continue to get. We need a good bit of dry weather in order to get these peanuts out of the ground, get them dry and get them harvested and to the buying point. As you are out this week looking at the different processes we go through to harvest this crop you’ll understand more of what I’m talking about here. Some of these areas will be lush and green then some areas will have dry pockets. For the most part this year its average to above average depending on how well the weather holds out and stays hot through October. That’s going to be a big factor here to how this crop turns up. At this point we are saying that we do have a good crop, but we do have quite a few challenges we are facing and dealing with this year.

View the 2018 Georgia Peanut Tour Photo Album.