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Tour of Dawson Brothers Farm

Rodney & Gary Dawson

The 150 attendees on the Georgia Peanut Tour began Wed. morning with a visit at Dawson Brothers Farm in Pulaski. This family farm started with 100 acres in the late 1800s. Since that time the farm has continued to expand to 8,000 acres today. Brothers, Rodney Dawson, John Dawson, Jr. and Gary Dawson, are the fourth generation to farm the land in Pulaski County. The diverse farming operation consists of 1,900 acres of peanuts, 5,500 acres of cotton, 1,000 acres of soybeans, 1,200 acres of wheat, 300 acres of watermelon and 300 acres of corn. To help manage their peanut crop the Dawson brothers have been utilizing a Peanut Intensive Management Program developed by their local county extension agent Ronnie Barrentine. Through this program they use Irrigator Pro to schedule their irrigation, monitor their fungicide sprays for disease, monitor their soil temperature and hire a scout to check to for insects. The family also utilizes new technology on their farm including GPS and RTK to help when planting, spraying and harvesting their crops. RTK is a process where GPS signal corrections are transmitted in real time from a reference receiver at a known location to one or more remote rover receivers. This allows peanut farmers the ability to mark their rows when planting peanuts and then be able to find the rows when it is time for digging the peanuts at harvest. As the peanut plant grows the leaf canopy covers the ground to where it is almost impossible to see where the rows are. By using RTK the tractor is able to stay on the actual row and help prevent loss from digging off of the row.

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Peanut Butter Medicine saves lives in Haiti

During the Hot Topics Seminar Dr. Patricia Wolff, clinical professor of pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine and head of Med & Food for Kids (MFK), discussed a life saving peanut butter medicine for malnourished children in Haiti. The MFK is saving lives of toddlers in Haiti with an innovative mixture of peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, oil, vitamins and minerals. This product is called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and needs no cooking or preparation time. The best part of this product is that toddlers can eat RUTF at home. This allows families to help their children at home instead of having to wait in the hospital. Malnutrition is typically treated at hospitals and feeding centers. It is difficult for parents struggling to feed themselves to commit to the lengthy program available at hospitals, and many families drop out. The home based RUTF can rapidly put weight on a child and costs less than hospitalization and decreases child mortality rates. In fact the product leads to recovery rates that often exceed 85%. The RUTF product is produced right in Haiti under the brand name, Medika Mamba (Haitian Creole for “Peanut Butter Medicine”). Since 2003, MFK has offered the hope of recovery to thousands of malnourished children.  Check out the Meds for Kids Web site.

 

 

 

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Crisp County Agriculture

Tucker Price, Crisp County Extension Agriculture Agent provided an update at orientation Wednesday morning for the Georgia Peanut Tour. Crisp County farmers have planted 13,000 acres of peanuts this year and he estimates an average yield of a little less than 2 tons per acre.  The crop looks mostly good to excellent says Price. The majority of acreage in Crisp County is irrigated. There have been several issues facing farmers this year including dry weather, pigweed and increasing fuel and fertilizer costs. Farmers in Crisp County are ready for harvest and some have even begun digging their peanuts this week. Crisp County is also known as the Watermelon Capitol of the World. In addition to peanuts, Crisp County grows watermelon, cotton, pecans and the county’s soybean acreage is continuing to grow.

Download fact sheet on the economic importance of food and fiber in Crisp County.

 

 

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Georgia Peanut Crop Update

“The Georgia peanut crop is in pretty good shape so far,” says John Bealsey, University of Georgia peanut agronomist. Beasley talked to the 70 attendees at the Hot Topics seminar held prior to the Georgia Peanut Tour. The yield is estimated at 3,150 pounds per acre which is close to the 2007 crop final yield.  In Georgia we have 150,000 more planted acres in 2008 than in 2007 so if we are able to maintain yield then Georgia is looking at an increase of 200,000 tons versus last year. At the beginning of planting it was very dry for farmers and now near the end of the season it has been the hottest the last few weeks, Beasley says.  This year farmers have faced a variety of crop production issues ranging from weeds to insect damage. The number one problem facing farmers this year is the tobacco budworm which is related to the corn earworm. Entomologists as far back as the mid 1950s cannot remember a problem as bad as this year where you had to spray for just one insect like the tobacco budworm.  Another problem facing farmers in weed control focuses on herbicide resistance palmer amaranth. White mold continues to be the biggest culprit in diseases. According to Dr. Beasley, “We’ve had problems but farmers have dealt with it. We have good potential for the peanut crop even though it has cost our producers.”

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Hot Topics seminar kicks off tour

An early bird Hot Topics seminar kicked off the 22nd annual Georgia Peanut Tour on Tuesday afternoon. This seminar covered topics including the 2008 Farm Bill,

Peanut Biotechnology and Molecular Breeding, USAID Peanut CRSP program, saving lives in Haiti with a peanut butter paste and new peanut products developed at the University of Georgia Food Science Department on the Griffin Campus. Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins talked with the group about research being conducted to reduce the amount of a particular allergen. She is also continuing research to see if silencing this gene has an affect on seedling growth and Aspergillus flavus fungal growth. More details on other topics during the Hot Topics Seminar will be covered in other posts. So check back often.

 

 

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Georgia Peanut Tour set for September

2007 Georgia Peanut Tour

The Georgia Peanut Tour is set to kick off this week in Cordele, Ga. The tour is set for Sept. 16-18, 2008 and covers peanut production in Cordele and the surrounding area. The tour includes a cross section of field conditions in South Central Georgia, farm visits at Chris Martin’s farm, Dawson Brothers Farm and Chase Farms, as well as peanut harvest clinics, peanut handling and grading facilities including McCleskey Mills and Tifton Quality Peanuts and research at the University of Georgia Southwest Research and Education Center in Plains, Ga., and the National Peanut Research Laboratory in Dawson, Ga. The Early Bird “Hot Topics” Seminar will be held at the Country Inn & Suites in Cordele, Ga., on Tues., Sept. 16 beginning at 3:00 p.m.

Download Hot Topics Schedule
Dowload Tour Schedule