By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Georgia’s peanut harvest has started. And farmers hope to get a
break from the rains that have been welcome so far this year.
“This growing season was, with the rainfall we received, ideal
for peanut growing,” said John Beasley, an Extension Service
peanut agronomist with the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Old-timers say . . .
“I’m not aware of anybody that didn’t get enough rain,” he
said. “Some got too much. Some of the old-timers said this was
the best growing weather they’d ever seen.”
Georgia farmers expect to get about 3,200 pounds of peanuts per
acre in this year’s harvest, which started in early September
and will wind down in mid-November. The state record yield is
3,375 pounds per acre set in 1984.
Peanut farmers like sunny, low-humidity days for harvest.
(To harvest peanuts, farmers first dig them out of the ground
and leave them in the fields to dry on the ground for a few
days. They then mechanically pick the peanuts from the plants
and take them to be sold.)
It’s time for the rains to stop, Beasley said. Too much rain,
usually brought by tropical weather systems this time of year,
has dampened many good peanut harvests in the past.
About 85 percent of Georgia’s crop will be harvested within the
next month. Other peanut-producing states, such as Alabama and
Florida, are harvesting a good crop now, too, Beasley said.
Options
Because of the wet growing season, farmers continue to fight
peanut diseases, said Bob Kemerait, a UGA Extension plant
pathologist. Farmers are weighing two options: spend the extra
money to treat late-season diseases or harvest their crop a
little early.
“The growers will always rather have a wet year,” Kemerait
said. “But diseases this year will take a chunk out of yields
and cut back on what could have been.”
Strong demand
Demand for U.S.-grown peanuts is as strong as ever, said Nathan
Smith, a UGA Extension peanut economist. U.S. farmers will grow
about 2 million tons of peanuts this year. Of this, Georgia will
produce 850,000 tons.
The U.S. peanut industry uses about 1.2 million tons of U.S.-
grown peanuts each year to make peanut butter, candy and snacks.
About 800,000 tons are exported to other countries or crushed
into oil.
This year, Smith said, the supply and demand of the peanut
industry should work out for stable prices for U.S. growers.
Working within the federal peanut program, farmers should get
about $380 per ton.
