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Drought threatens Georgia peanut crop as it enters home stretch

The aroma of freshly dug peanuts wafting from this field of Georgia 06 peanuts, grown by Floyd and Frank Tucker, in Irwin County, as it was drying the afternoon of Sept. 18  would make one hungry for roasted peanuts. After farmers dig their peanut vines up, they wait for the moisture level to drop enough before the crop can be picked, which involves driving a peanut harvester machine over the field to rake up the vines and shake the peanuts loose from the vines into a small buggy that's part of the harvester. / Photo by Jennifer Whittaker   

 

At the beginning of August, Georgia’s peanut crop looked good, UGA Extension Peanut Agronomist Scott Monfort said. Then, it stopped raining across most of South Georgia’s peanut belt in mid-August.

“We’ve been without rain in a large part of Georgia since August 22 and some parts since August 19,” Monfort said while speaking at the Hot Topics session on Sept. 16 during the 37th Annual Georgia Peanut Tour. “It’s a bad thing when you’re trying to put on a crop without rain. We’re going to lose part of this crop that’s not irrigated, the later planted third of the crop.”

Georgia growers planted their crop from mid-April to mid-June.

Farmers with irrigated fields are having to water them to more easily dig their mature peanuts, while farmers with mature, dryland peanuts are contending with hard and dusty fields as they dig their crop.

On the positive side, Monfort predicts the 55% of Georgia’s peanut crop that is irrigated will make a good crop. On the flip side, he estimates 50-60% of Georgia’s non-irrigated peanut crop is struggling.

He advised growers with dryland and irrigated peanuts to refrain from mixing them on the same trailers to haul to their peanut buying points so that peanuts of varying quality are kept separate.

On Sept. 18, Irwin County peanut grower Randy Bryan decided to start digging his dryland Georgia 09 peanuts early due to a lack of rain.

“These peanuts aren’t ready to dig. They really needed another week to fully mature, but I saw peanuts burning up in the field just south of me, so I decided to go ahead and dig them,” Bryan said. “If it was going to rain this weekend, I probably would have left them to fill out more, but I want to harvest what I’ve got.” 

 

Irwin County peanut grower Randy Bryan digs a field of dryland peanuts on Thursday, Sept. 18./ Photo by Jennifer Whittaker

 

Without rain, peanut plants with immature nuts will abort them instead of growing them out, Monfort said.

“It’s a tough world out there. We started the season well in the spring and thought this was going to be a good season for us, but it has changed,” Monfort said. “We’ve had three rough growing years for peanuts, and it’s hitting the growers hard.”

Even if it does start raining this week or next, it may be too late to grow out the last third of the state’s dryland crop, Monfort said. 

Another problem dryland growers are having to contend with is leaf spot.

“As dry as it has been, we’ve had heavy dews almost every morning, which is all the moisture you need for leaf spot,” Monfort said.

Monfort and other members of the UGA Extension Peanut Team host a weekly podcast, “All About the Pod,” during which the team discusses production issues growers are facing and offer research-based recommendations. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and at https://peanutsusa.com/industry-resources/all-about-the-pod .

 

There were a lot of peanut fields being irrigated on Thursday, Sept. 18 along the backroads of Turner, Ben Hill, Berrien, and Irwin counties./Photo by Jennifer Whittaker

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