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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We 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 33^rd 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 33^rd 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.

The 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