The survivors, representing one of the three major U.S. peanut
production regions – the Southwest Regions, the Southeast Region
and Virginia-Carolina Region, were presented the award during
the 4th annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference held recently
in Panama City Beach, Fla.

The winners include: Southeast Region-Jerry Heard,
Jr. and Jeff Heard, Newton, Ga.; Southwest Region-Chuck Rowland,
Gaines County, Texas and Virginia-Carolina Region-Jamie Lee,
Courtland, Va.

“The 2002 Peanut Profitability winners are to be
commended for their strength and perseverance in the face of the
worst conditions imaginable,” says Mike Gonitzke, publisher of
the Farm Press Publications. “These growers are setting the
standard for production efficiency by continuing to discover
innovative methods of improving bottom-line profits.”

Looking at the winners

“This year’s Peanut Profitability winners were excellent yield
and cost managers – they all had outstanding yields,” says
Marshall Lamb, economist with the National Peanut Research
Laboratory in Dawson, Ga. “While their cost of production might
have been higher than last year’s class of winners, their yields
were so good that they lowered their cost-per-unit. These
growers didn’t mind spending money if they could see a return in
yields.”

Fixed costs also were higher among this year’s winners, says the
economist, but high yields helped to compensate for the
difference. “If you look at these growers’ production records,
you’ll see that they’re consistently high-yield producers, most
every year. We’re talking about a minimum of 4,800 to 5,000
pounds per acre.”

“And we’re not talking about small plots here. The Peanut
Profitability Program judges a grower’s efficiency over his
entire farming operation. It’s easy to make a high yield on a
small plot, but the challenge comes in duplicating that success
over your entire acreage while maintaining cost efficiency,”
notes Lamb.

Rotation is another common trait among this year’s winners, he
adds. “Not one of these growers had a crop rotation of fewer
than three years. Crop rotation of one of the basic but primary
components of efficient peanut production, and these growers
recognize this,” he says.

The awards program, established by Farm Press in cooperation
with the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, is sponsored this
year by BASF Corporation.

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The Southern Peanut Farmers Federation, formed in 1998, is an
alliance between the Alabama Peanut Producers Association,
Florida Peanut Producers Association and the Georgia Peanut
Commission.