Tim Brenneman is a plant pathologist at the University of Georgia and the 2022 Georgia Peanut Tour Chairman. On the tour, he discussed some of the research he does for the National Peanut board and this work is based on helping breeders develop the best varieties for disease resistance. They are looking for an input that will take fewer applications of fungicide and be more economical to produce. Most of the lines that they grow are developed by the USDA, University of Georgia, or University of Florida as well as have some private breeders like ACI Seeds. Brenneman does a screening project each year where he accepts entries from any of the breeders and he puts them together in a nursery field where they particularly cultivate diseases and can evaluate the relative susceptibility of all the different lines. It is a chance for all the breeding programs to have things together in one comparative screen. He then uses that data to advise growers on the relative susceptibility of the lines once they’re released and growers start growing them in the field.

He showed the tour attendees some of the work that has been done in that department since they have some good disease starting to develop. The participants on the tour were also able to see some of the big differences in some of the cultivars that they are growing. There is a wide variety that he has in terms of cultivar selection and that’s very important as it is one of the foundations for our industry.

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Albert Culbreath is a research plant pathologist for the University of Georgia at the Tifton campus. He has worked for the university for thirty years and works largely on leaf spot diseases caused by a couple of fungal pathogens and tomato spotted wilt virus. He feels that a lot of progress has been made in terms of managing tomato spotted wilt virus. A lot of the success has come from breeding programs. The resistance in the varieties available has improved dramatically over the last thirty years.

He feels as if it is a bit of a mystery but for whatever reason tomato spotted wilt virus has been on the increase in recent years. In fact, the pressure that farmers are seeing in 2022 is the heaviest the industry has seen in roughly 20 years despite the better resistance and integrated management that farmers are practicing. The issue does present an opportunity for Culbreath’s research standpoint to evaluate more varieties and more breeding lines and see how they stack up and how farmers can best use them. In addition to that, what we can combine with those varieties to improve disease control.  There is not any immunity in any of the cultivar lines. However, the variety Georgia-12Y has remarkably better resistance than Georgia-06, which is still our predominant variety. Even with the best resistance we have in a year like 2022, especially with early planted and such, that’s just not enough.

One of the factors researchers have worked with for years is Phorate and Thimet insecticide. The tomato spotted wilt virus is spread by thrips and they have not seen many insecticides at all that provides a consistent suppression of tomato spotted wilt virus. Despite the thrips control, Phorate or Thimet is the exception to that for whatever reason in the 2022 year. Researchers have seen a larger response to Thimet than what has been seen in quite some time. There is still extremely heavier pressure, but for whatever reason, a large response to the Thimet insecticide is being seen.

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Bob Kemerait, an extension plant pathologist works hard to take the information that is developed by the researchers at the University of Georgia and put it into a form that growers can use to make a difference in their profitability. That’s the whole key for growers in Georgia, how can we become more profitable.

There were three takeaways Kemerait spoke about on the 2022 Georgia Peanut Tour. The first was stressing important diseases can be in terms of the profitability and yields. One of the most important diseases he talks about was tomato spotted wilt virus. It is spread by a small insect called thrips. It has been especially bad in the 2022 season and anything and everything growers could do to manage that disease ends when they closed the furrow. Currently, at approximately 125-130 days, you may see tomato spotted wilt virus apparent in some fields but there’s nothing growers could have done other than the decisions they made at planting time. Some of those decisions are what variety to plant, what to put in the furrow, and what time to begin planting. You’re also likely to see leaf spot diseases and white mold disease. All these diseases are especially devastating if they’re not controlled.

The second topic Kemerait spoke on was the effort by not only by the University of Georgia, but by neighboring states as well, to try and develop strategies for managing diseases. This work is also in conjunction with peanut breeders who look to find varieties that have greater resistance to diseases like leaf spot and tomato spotted wilt virus. This work is done to ensure we become more profitable and remain profitable. The industry also has help from agrochemical industries. Agrochemical companies safely, efficiently, and effectively produce products that we can put out to protect yields for our growers. Growers in Georgia, except for a very few organic growers, cannot grow their crop successfully if they don’t fight diseases like tomato spider wilt virus, leaf spot, and white mold. All the production practices are integrated into an extension tool called Peanut RX. Peanut RX is a tool that our growers can use to find ways to better manage their crop based upon the risks because if diseases are not managed, the yield could be off by thousands of pounds.

Lastly, Kemerait stressed the importance of recognizing the investment that goes into protecting these farmers and their fields. The investment comes from the farmers as they invest the Georgia Peanut Commission. It comes from the growers themselves because diseases are a significant problem for profitability in Georgia peanut production and only by managing them are we effective and remain some of the best peanuts.

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Eric Prostko is an extension weed specialist at the University of Georgia and a speaker at the 2022 Georgia Peanut Tour. Prostko spends roughly half of his time working with peanuts and the other fifty percent working on the other crops. Prostko spent his time talking about the importance of weed control and peanut production systems.

He stated that if growers don’t control weeds, it’s very likely that harvesting peanuts will not be an option. That is because it’s a two-step process that requires the inversion process and then the combining process. If weeds are present then it can be very detrimental to that process. Additionally, weeds compete with peanuts for resources like sunlight, nutrients, and water. Weeds will prevent those resources from being allocated to the peanuts and that will affect the yield of the peanuts. The presence of weeds also influences yields by inhibiting the deposition of fungicides. If growers have a lot of weeds in the field, it is harder for fungicide sprays to reach the target, which is the canopy of the of the peanut plant. It is very critical that farmers manage their weeds both from a yield, harvesting, and fungicide standpoint.  If growers were to allow weeds to produce seeds in different areas of the crop, then those seeds will be there in subsequent rotations which could then cause a problem.

Prostko conducted his own research where he had two plots, one to highlight peanuts that went untreated and another to highlight peanuts that were treated. The plot that went untreated eventually was so overtaken by pigweed that Prostko had to mow the entire plot due to not being able to get equipment through the plot. He felt that his research was a great example of the results of not treating your crops. His treated plot was on a standard program that is recommended for most growers. The program consists of three herbicides that are applied at planting the around the thirty-day mark, an additional three herbicides are applied.

Prostko feels that farmers in Georgia have not suffered as much as others have in other states such as Tennessee and Arkansas.  That is due to taking actions for weed control that growers can’t do in other states. One of the most troublesome weeds growers face is called palmer amaranth and as most people in Georgia would consider it “Public Enemy Number One.”  When talking about weeds, it is extremely interesting plant. It can grow up to six or seven feet tall. The female plants can produce up anywhere from 500 000 seed per plant or more.  So, it’s extremely competitive and it’s hard to control. Researchers have developed some herbicides, but the species has evolved some resistances to some of the herbicides that growers use so it is very challenging. The plant itself is kind of woody, so it is tough on equipment if it’s left uncontrolled. When it is going through an inverter or going through the combine it can cause some problems. There are many other weeds that are present in the peanut industry. Over the last several years, palmer amaranth has really growers a lot of heartache. Fortunately, for peanuts there are some great programs to manage the weed. If growers implement those programs and with some timely moisture, they can keep it under control.

Prostko has been in Georgia for 23 years and when he first came, this plant was not a problem. Then over time, for various reasons, it has become the number one weed that growers have in not only peanuts but most of our economic crops. Having clean peanut fields is critical to the success of Georgia’s peanut production and a lot of time is spent trying to help the county agents and growers figure out the best ways to manage weeds.

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Scott Monfort is a peanut agronomist with the University of Georgia. Monfort explains how Georgia is the number one peanut producer in the United States and what producers go through to make that possible. Georgia produces roughly fifty percent of the peanuts in the United States, which is equivalent to 670,000 to 700,000 acres annually. It is not an easy process that growers go through to produce this crop. Growers take on a lot of debt and stress so the university and USDA work hard to minimize that stress. They try to do all the research that is necessary to enhance the productivity of this crop and try to minimize the pests.

Monfort focused his attention the very common issue this year in peanut production, tomato spotted wilt virus. If tomato spotted wilt virus is present, you will see a lot of yellowing and stunted growth. Even though newer varieties have good resistance, it’s not immune. Monfort stated that growers must use pesticides, or in this case insecticides, for the vector. In this case, it is a small pest called thrips. He also states that even though there is a lot of tomato spotted wilt virus in the current season, farmers are still predicted to have a good crop.

Monfort informs visitors of the work that goes into producing such a valuable crop to every person in the United States. Peanuts are very important for people and people in the peanut industry want consumers to know that pride is taken in the work they do. He assured visitors of how much effort goes into producing a crop and left visitors with an understanding as to why there is a fluctuation in price and availability.

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After leaving the peanut field, tour attendees traveled to Sylvester, Georgia, to visit the Birdsong Peanuts shelling facility. For five generations, Birdsong Peanuts has delivered naturally nutritious peanuts to manufacturers around the corner and around the world. Birdsong buys carefully selected peanuts directly from the farmers’ fields. The peanuts are then cleaned, shelled, sized and shipped in truckload lots to manufacturers who turn them into many popular food items sold across the globe, from peanut butter to peanut candies.

Birdsong serves its customers from five shelling plants. The plants are supported by many buying points and warehouses to store 2.4 billion pounds of Farmers Stock peanuts. Their cold storage facilities keep 250 million pounds of shelled peanuts in a controlled environment for their customers.

Video and photography is not allowed inside the plant; however, here is a short video showing a glimpse inside Birdsong’s Suffolk, Virginia, location.

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Simer Virk is an extension precision ag specialist at the University of Georgia Tifton campus and is a part of the UGA peanut team. He works a lot in the precision ag side where they look at a lot of different technologies in peanut production. Some of the research he conducts is looking into how growers can better utilize some of these precision ag technologies, whether it’s an auto steering GPS, which has become standard these days, but also some of the new technologies like variable rate or lime application.

Some of the newer spray technologies are making it to where farmers can apply more efficiently and effectively to increase crop productivity or field efficiency. A lot of these technologies originated out of the Midwest and a lot of times they are not tested in the peanut production side, so they look for opportunities to better fit these technologies into peanut production. They investigate how those technologies can be better utilized, whether it be droplet size control in real time or controlling the application volume better. Some additional research they do is on the emerging technologies that can help benefit peanut production. An example of that is agricultural drones used for spraying. Although there are some regulations, they can now detect variability across the field whether it is a disease or pest management. When working with new technologies, they are practicing seeing how those tools can be better utilized.

They are looking for ways to better treat the fields but also paying more attention to the areas that need more intensive management. They start early in the season are looking for ways on how to be more precise and do a better job of making applications more effective while still precisely controlling the volume or droplet size all while being timely. One example would be when it’s too wet in the field and farmers can’t go out with the ground sprayer, you can use newer technologies, like the drone sprayer which eliminates the need to be on the ground. Then you can still go out and make the application.

They are taking a deeper look at some of these newer, emerging technologies so growers can effectively integrate and adopt them. They are looking to not only make the peanut production better, but even take it to the next level.

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Located in Camilla, Georgia, Hays LTI has been providing agricultural equipment for more than 50 years. A family-owned and operated business, Hays is best known for its dry fertilizer tenders and liquid tankers. Their equipment can be purchased, rented or both.

Every Hays-LTI product is hand-crafted on site in their state-of-the-art facility located in Camilla, Georgia. Their user-friendly design and attention to detail is what makes their equipment stand the test of time. From fertilizer plants to fields, their equipment moves liquid and dry fertilizer in over 42 states.

The company’s rental fleet includes more than 900 trailers that make up 40% of the company’s income. This option allows customers to have a known cost with no upkeep or repair.

The Hays Tender for dry fertilizer was developed in 2010 and has changed the market. This particular piece of equipment offers a lower trailer weight, equating to extra payload; greater slope on the hoppers for easier unload; covered hydraulic lines and hoses for protection from fertilizer; and all stainless steel augers, bearings, nuts and bolts. Hays employees can produce roughly seven tenders per week.

Hays’ current location was constructed in 2016 and contains all company operations on 60 acres. The location employs 65 people and generates better lead times, as well as the ability to grow the company’s product line and include other fertilizer hauling equipment.

Founder of Hays LTI, Mr. Ray Hays, started a sweet tradition after his retirement. When he called on customers, he wanted to take them something homemade, so Hays began baking homemade pecan pies for Mr. Hays to share. His daughter, Donna, said he never left town without an ice chest full of pecan pies. When he stopped to visit customers, he enjoyed giving out a homemade pecan pie, piece of literature, a business card and good handshake. Today in the Hays kitchen, they make about 600 pies a month to share with friends, vendors and customers. Tour attendees were able to have a slice on their visit, as well.

Donna Hays Stewart, co-owner of Hays LTI, attributes the following life lessons to what she feels help make their family business successful:

• Be on time
• Work hard
• Do things right the first time
• Take pride in what you do
• Protect your name
• Learn from your mistakes, try not to make them again
• Show appreciation and stay humble
• Believe that you can and never give up – don’t quit
• Value people, all people
• Build strong relationships
• Treat people right
• Give 110%
• Love what you do and trust God

Check out this video showcasing their products from the ground up!

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While at the Sunbelt Ag Expo, local county Extension agents, Sydni Ingram and Kale Cloud, presented a Harvest Maturity Clinic for tour attendees. Farmers utilize the hull scrape method or pod blasting and the Peanut Profile Board to determine if peanuts have reached optimum maturity for harvest. Digging peanuts is one of the biggest decisions farmers make each year. The maturity of a peanut affects the yield, flavor, grade and shelf life. Farmers can lose as much as 500 to 700 pounds per acre in fields if peanuts are harvested too early or too late. During the tour several county agents set up stations to show attendees how to use the Peanut Profile Board.

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Maule Air S.T.O.L. is an aircraft manufacturer located in Moultrie, Georgia. Maule Air Inc. is owned and operated by the Maule family. Some of the Maule family, Brent Maule and his nephew Tyler Wilkes, presented their purpose and two of their planes to 2022 Georgia Peanut Tour attendees. Brent and Tyler are fourth and fifth generation aircraft manufacturers for Maule Air Inc. Maule Air Inc. take pride in the fact that their planes are take off and land within 100 feet.  Their short take off and landing make them popular within the farming community. Maule also provide room in their planes to resemble the same effect of a trunk or truck bed. Along with many other implements, Maule provides tools for landing in most locations of the world. For example, they have floats for landing in water, sleds for snow, and wheels for dry land.

Attendees were able to observe the planes Brent and Tyler brought to exhibit. Brent and Tyler, also, answered questions any of the attendees had.

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