This year’s Georgia peanut harvest survived summer droughts
and heavy rains at harvest
time to produce some of the best of times and some of the worst
for farmers.

"Across the state, we are seeing everything from some of
the best yields in years
to some of the worst yields," said John Beasley, a
University of Georgia Extension
Service peanut scientist.

The harvest is winding down now, Beasley said.

"We had an interruption of two weeks of rainy weather
the weeks of Sept. 30 and
Oct. 7," he said. "Hurricane Fran came through and
brought a lot of rain. And
that gave us weather that’s not very conducive to
harvest."

When the bad weather hit, some growers had already dug their
peanuts, which were laying
on the ground to dry and be harvested. Others had peanuts that
were mature enough to be
dug but were still in the ground.

"Those under the ground weren’t hurt as badly as those
on top of the ground,"
Beasley said.

Once the weather cleared, though, it was perfect.

"We’ve had good harvest weather lately: clear days with
low humidity and a good
breeze to help cure peanuts in the windrow," Beasley said.
"We were only 50
percent harvested at the first of October, but (going into the
last week) we had probably
less than 5 percent left to harvest."

Normally, the peanut crop is two-thirds to three-fourths
harvested by Oct. 1.

"Because we only harvested 50 to 60 percent before that
time, it’s hard to tell
how much loss we suffered from the rains," Beasley said.
"It was some, but not a
lot when averaged across the state."

The estimated average yield for this year’s crop, as of Oct.
1, was 2,550 pounds per
acre.

"I don’t think that will change much," Beasley
said. "I talked to a
county agent from Stewart County, and he said he was seeing some
of the best yields they’d
ever had. And theirs is mostly nonirrigated fields."

In 1994, peanuts slipped behind cotton in crop value after
reigning as the state’s No.
1 crop for many years.

Last year Georgia growers planted almost 600,000 acres of
peanuts and harvested 2,390
pounds per acre. This year’s crop is down to 533,000 acres. An
increase of 160 pounds per
acre is projected.

Georgia’s peanut crop is worth more than $500 million to
farmers and about $2.5 billion
to the state’s economy.

The state produces about 44 percent of the nation’s peanuts.
An estimated 6,000
peanut farmers are scattered across 75 Georgia counties and grow
an average of 88 acres of
peanuts.

About 75 percent of Georgia’s peanuts are used to make peanut
butter.