Don's Peanut Place

The Miracle That is Agricultural Research

2011-12-01T21:22:00.002-05:00

In the early 1800's Thomas Malthus predicted that world population would outgrow the world supply of food.

Little did Malthus know that in 1862 the model for progressive agricultural research would be established by the United States Congress and lead to the establishment of the Land Grant system. The University of Georgia, Auburn University, The University of Florida are all products of that legislation.

Agricultural research has continued to move the needle on what is possible in crop and livestock production.

For peanuts, farmers found themselves amazed at the production potential of the Georgia 06G variety, eve under the worst of weather conditions.

This variety is a product of production research at the University of Georgia and sponsored in large part by the Georgia Peanut Commission. Think about it.

When and What Contracts

2011-11-13T09:03:00.002-05:00

I think conventional wisdom is that the industry might have learned last year to come with contracts a bit earlier. The big question is what kind of contracts will they come with?

It is not our job to tell a farmer what to do but I want to be sure he has all his options. Because many farmers don't look at this blog I hope you will tell your neighbors to gather information as much as possible. The Peanut Commission is a good place to get that information. We have funded work through the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness and they have a host of representative farms which can be a guide to use to compare cotton and corn and peanuts, in terms of cost of producing versus price.

It has been my observation that the first price offered has never been the best price offered. There are also other considerations that must be weighed as you make your planting and marketing decisions.

Weather forecasters have said this Winter and Spring will be a continuation of the current weather pattern and will be warmer and drier than normal.

Look around and you can see the ponds are very low and streams are far from being out of the banks. Reports are that the aquifer is lower than normal after two years of heavy pumping with less than adequate recharge in the Winter.

Reports from the Southwest are not any better, in fact they may possibly be even worse.

If we don't recharge and get water to use for irrigation then another dry year could be a disaster. This said it is a consideration but I don't think it is sound to make all your decisions on what ifs.

So then how does an acre of peanuts stack up on cost versus return and other considerations?
Corn, for instance may reduce a farmer's risk because the growing season is shorter and by August it is harvested and in storage.

These are just a few considerations and we will be looking at more of these at the Peanut Commission as we progress toward Spring.

Hotter and Dryer Winter

2011-10-24T08:31:00.003-04:00

What does this mean for peanuts?

The weather man says we will continue in a hotter and drier weather pattern at least through the Winter. Well we don't grow peanuts in the winter so who cares at this point?

We should all care. Winter is typically the time we charge ponds for irrigtion and recharge subsoil moisture. Many of the ponds are empty and for sure the subsoil moisture is depleated in many areas of the peanut growing belt.

My best advice to farmers is be making plans as soon as you see a price on commodities which can make you money. If the peanut industry fails to get a decent contract out early and I do mean something good before Christmas then do the prudent thing and try to lock in some profit opportunities.

I hope 2011 taught the rest of the industry a lesson but I am concerned they still have not figured it out.

It might be a good time to remember pigs get fed but hogs go to slaughter. Don't get greedy but be sure to look at the market fundamentals of everything.

Food for Thought

2011-10-14T08:56:00.001-04:00

I learned fairly early in my professional life that when I pointed a finger at
someone else my remaining three fingers were pointed back at me. I write this
not to point a finger but to give food for thought.

For several years we have worked with the National Center for Peanut
Competitiveness to build representative farms which would help us direct
farmers in making planting and marketing decisions. Last year at the American
Peanut Council December meeting, Dr. Fletcher presented a prognosis of what it
would take to have enough peanuts planted to meet demand. They look at cost
structures and then at commodities which may compete for acres. Some of the
folks at the table with me sort of scoffed at Dr. Fletcher’s numbers.

We let farmers contract cotton and to some extent corn early and well before
peanut contracts were ever offered. Because those contracts have to be filled
farmers put their most productive land in those commodities. We saw this by the
sharp decline in irrigated peanut acres in Georgia.

You may argue, just make peanut contracts a mandated delivery, but it is not quite
that simple. Cotton and Corn have a futures market and there is a source to
correct an error in contracting. It may be costly but it is at the least
doable. For peanuts there is no futures market and therefore if production is
not there you have no place to go to fix the situation.

Add to this the bad taste some farmers have toward peanuts right now and the
situation becomes more tenuous. Farmers who had extra production because they
irrigated or those who decided not to contract because the price was not high
enough found themselves in the unfortunate situation of indemnifying the poor
quality of some of the peanuts delivered under contract. For the first time in
history peanuts at the farmers stock level didn’t reflect a $200 shelling
margin but instead reflected at least a $400 margin. These farmers were less
than happy with this redistribution of cash.

Now, for 2012 some experts in the livestock feeding business are studying the
prospect of corn prices as high as $10 per bushel. I discussed this prospect
with one broker and with several farmers and the broker seemed concerned but
not alarmed. The farmers see this as an opportunity.

Corn, cotton, and peanuts have a relatively similar cost structure. Farmers are also
struggling with resistant weeds which a corn rotation would allow some very
good management for those weeds. Corn is planted in March and harvested by
August which certainly reduces the producers risk in terms of the calendar.
Irrigated producers in Georgia can anticipate corn yields in excess of 200
bushels per acre.

Farmers, just as any businessman, have to make good economic decisions now more than
ever. The banks are demanding it.

Nothing would make me happier than for Georgia to produce a million tons of peanuts in
2012 and we can do that on 650,000 acres and not bust our rotation under normal
conditions. Still, I can’t fault farmers for choosing their best options. Maybe
we need Dr. Fletcher to come back and tell us what the numbers are to buy back
some of those irrigated acres we have lost.

Looking to 2012

2011-10-10T14:42:00.002-04:00

I am pretty well convinced the peanut industry has not yet learned the complete lesson of supply and demand.

There are good options for farmers at this time so there is absoutely no need sign a cheap contract for 2012. Why plant peanuts for $1500 per acre when you can make $2200 per acre on corn? That may well be the question for 2012.

Of recent, shelled goods have traded at $1.20 and yet all the farmer is being offered is $1000. It has always been a rule of thumb that the farmer should get about $100 for every ten cents of shelled good price. USDA's posted price would have normally been pretty accurate but the farmer is not receiving what has long been an industry norm.

It might be that for 2012 farmers should consider cutting acres ten percent and not contracting and they might find their bottom line in better shape because of it.

Sadly, just as the rest of the industry has not totally learned the lesson many farmers will sign contracts which are far too low. I guess we all need a primer on supply and demand.

Why Aren't Shellers Paying The Market

2011-10-05T21:02:00.002-04:00

Shelled goods hit $1.20 and if by any strange chance you have any 2010 price later peanuts they are worth $1300 give or take a little per ton.

So why was the market at $800 to $850 and suddenly jumped to $1000. $1000 is $300 below the market and if the tariff at the buying point is not too bad it might behoove a farmer to seek a toll sheller and maximize his value. I am still convinced we see a situation not unlike 1990 when prices went to a high of $1436 and I really believe when somebody has to shut the factory down next year farmers stock could well be $500 higher than the current offer of $1000.

Farmers need to be patient. The lack of competition in the shelling industry can only be managed by a strong resolve, a willingness to be creative, and using the calendar to your advantage.

Right now the sellers are reeling from quality issues and because PAC is gone and there is no indemnification fund sheller would almost seem to be indemnifying crop quality issues by offering farmers prices below the market.

The Peanut Market

2011-09-30T11:55:00.002-04:00

Recently I have been again looking at the Rotterdam price of peanuts which is the only shelled good indicator left since we lost the Thomasville report.

Shellers seem to be paying about $200 less than they would normally have paid in the past. Does this mean the shelling margin has gone from $200 give or take to now $400? Does it reflect the quality issues with last year's crop? USDA's posted price is correct the way things used to be but now for some reason the shellers are not paying farmers at the same rate as they used to on shelled goods.

Now I don't know their business but doubt this is all because of the quality issues last year. I suppose the cost squeeze could also be impacting the shellers and they need more money. Sadly, it has reduced farmers stock prices by $200 from where they would have been had this been in 1990.

I have to hope at this point the peanut industry including farmers, who never should have contracted at $550 for the 2011 crop, are learning to look at all the factors of which peanut supply and demand is only a small part. What should it cost to buy peanut acres next year?

I often listen to the poultry guys to see what they think corn prices will be. I have heard pretty solid agreement that the recent downward blip was a harvest blip and the price is going back up. There is fair agreement that corn even goes higher and at least one case I have heard suggestions of $10 corn.

Let me explain the logistics of corn. I had a peanut broker who told me we could not store it all. Actually, we can use it all in a matter of weeks. We are a positive basis state and poultry will gobble it up. Also, there are bins which with little work could be put back in use and I have certainly seen corn stored on peanut wagons. I am not sure how many bushels of peanut wagon space we have but it is a lot ad that could be first marketed to free them up for peanut harvest two months later.

Now for the practicality of corn...the cost is about the same as peanut and cotton, just that some of the inputs are different. And, corn offers some benefit in rotation and in the area of pigweed management because you can use 2-4 D. With corn the crop is made by July and harvest by sometime in August, thereby limiting the risk from weather, insect, and disease pressures. Corn has you on the lake by Labor Day weekend.

And, the economics? I said the cost is not so different from well managed peanuts or cotton. So if I can make 220 bushels which is a pretty average number I am likely about a 4400 pound peanut producer. At 250 bushel corn I am more like a 5000 pound producer. Remember this is under adequate irrigation. At ten dollar corn I need thousand dollar peanuts. Eight dollar corn translates to $880 peanuts.

Cotton may be a bit softer but still close to the dollar a pound range and some experts would say much higher. Dollar cotton means for a similar type of producer about $1500 per acre. this is still $700 peanuts and under this scenario acres of both peanut and cotton would yield way to corn.

Looks like an interesting year but I hope farmers will put their own pencil to it and don't sell cheap.

Downhill Slide Toward an Uphill Climb

2011-09-19T13:56:00.003-04:00

The peanut crop continues on a downhill slide.

We are cooler but still dry and the rainfall predicted this week, if it does any good, will be more beneficial for digging than any other thing.

It is too late for anything to happen very good at this date.

So what about un-contracted peanuts for this year's crop. They will have to have them some time and they are going to pay if farmers are patient. Best marketing advice is to put in the loan after January first and then you have until October of 12 to market. All predictions are we run out of peanuts before the '12 harvest so some body will have to have peanuts at a premium price. Remember in 1990 peanuts went to $1436. Hold out for $1500 and sell when you can't stand to hold any longer.

So then what about next Spring?

Unless contracts get to somewhere between $850 and $900 we will not plant enough peanuts.

Compare two and a half bale cotton to two ton peanuts to 220 bu. corn. Those are comparable production prospects for a producer. Now look at the fact you have ended your risk on corn by July and Cotton and Peanut continue the risk to November. Cost of production is not terribly dissimilar.

Corn needs to be planted to irrigated acres to make the yield.

Considering basis on corn we could contract and receive about $8 per bushel for corn. at 220 bushels this is $1760 per acre. Two ton peanuts would have to be $880 per ton to compare. Cotton at two and a half bales is 1750 pounds of lint at a shade over a dollar a pound. Again to compare peanuts has to be $875 to compete with cotton.

A farmer is better off if there are not competitive pre-plant contracts for peanuts to load up irrigated acres with corn if the price holds near $8. Early marketing commitments are going to be critical this coming year on all commodities.

Rain, Rain, Where the Heck Did You Go?

2011-09-06T08:18:00.002-04:00

Well TS Lee was supposed to be a rain event for the southeastern peanut belt and to some extent it was. Still, in the Georgia belt there were few significant accumulations beltwide. That said many locations got about an inch which was well received and appreciated.

Temperatures are moderating and if they don't get too cool so as to shut down plant development and if we could get a bit more rain pretty soon then that would be a help.

One concern is the approach of Katia and the northward turn. This could give us a a repeat of Irene sucking all the moisture out of the atmosphere which would not be good.

We are still hoping for a miracle but if something does not happen really soon this crop is really in trouble and it will be worse than previously predicted.

The Irene Disaster

2011-08-29T14:14:00.002-04:00

The part of the disaster from Hurricane Irene we see from the rain and flooding and trees blown over are certainly evident. What is less evident is the impact Irene has had on our crops in south Georgia.

Irene caused the big sucking sound which was accompanied by a strong west wind to rob the atmosphere of any humidity. When you don't sweat at 99 degrees the atmosphere is really dry. This is not good and the next real chance of rain is still essentially a week away. We needed the rain from Irene.

The crop has really deteriorated quite a bit the last couple weeks.

Not good for an already tight supply.

Farmers, if you are not contracted don't be surprised to see peanuts at $1500 before the 12 harvest. They got to $1436 in '90.

You Picked a Fine Time to Leave me Irene

2011-08-23T10:32:00.002-04:00

The hopes for finally getting the "rain with a name" seem to have been dashed.

Farmers are telling me we are about out of time to get that general rain. Some farmers are thinking harvest is pretty close now and that they will have to get what they have. We had hoped Irene might come in at the Big Bend of Florida and become a rain event for us with not a lot of wind. Had she taken that path which was projected early, we would have had general rainfall across the peanut belt in Georgia.

Now she is going east and tat is by far the worst thing she can do because she will suck all the moisture out of the air for most of the southeastern peanut belt.

I was in Brooklet over the weekend and peanuts in the flat country near the coast should be lapped and green and lush this time of year but alas I could still see the row of the twins. I am not sure, save a warm Fall and late frost that there is much many of those peanuts can do this year.

I suppose I am back to praying for a miracle for our farmers and so now I am expecting it.

A Busy Week

2011-08-03T08:11:00.003-04:00

This has been a busy week for the Peanut Commission.

We celebrated our fiftieth anniversary helping farmers. We had a groundbreaking for a new headquarters. I personally celebrated twenty-five years as the Commission's Executive Director. And, it all happened Monday.

I had a reporter ask me why the new building and why at this time?

Why the new building? The Commission for many years has discussed a location on I-75 but the cost was always out of reach. Then came Tift County and the old State Patrol Post. We negotiated with the County and bought a piece of land which we could afford. You might ask why I-75? 100,000 vehicles a day go past the site of the new headquarters.

The building is going to be traditional in building cost but much more efficient to operate, including the fact that it will be a net zero energy building.

So, Why now? This has been four years in the making to get to this point and if you consider that building costs are actually down because of the current recession the time couldn't be much better.

We will pay for the building with the sale of our current office in town and with grants, sponsorships and a commemorative brick program.

KMC, the makers of peanut harvest equipment was the first to approach the Commission for a sponsorship opportunity. Lanier Carson, Benny Branch, and the whole group at KMC are way more than a corporation, they are community supporters and that certainly includes the peanut community.

Rain Rain

2011-07-17T07:18:00.002-04:00

This Friday and Saturday have offered the most widespread rainfall event in the Georgia peanut belt since the drought began.

The weather forecast is now for rain chance to diminish and temps to rise again this week.

Because we have not yet had a tropical event we will need rainfall on a regular basis and temperatures need to moderate at night if we are to reach potential on what we do have planted.

It is my observation that cotton may only have a 60 to 70 percent stand on average across the belt and peanuts maybe as high as 90 percent. There are few perfect stands anywhere.

Peanut Pegging

2011-07-06T07:44:00.003-04:00

It is a bit interesting that every state, save Virginia, is barely at or obviously lagging behind the five year pegging average as of the most recent crop progress report.

I am not totally sure what this means and depending on the weather it could be good or bad. What is surprising is that as hot as it has been usually we would expect to be ahead of normal. The drought has had an impact on progress for sure but some effect may be planting date effect.

I would still contend this is the most difficult start to a crop in my 25 years as the Commission's Executive Director.

Rain Rain Come Today

2011-07-05T08:40:00.002-04:00

I am not sure I ever remember 6 inch cotton blooming out the top but I saw some Sunday in Crisp County.

While we have had some scattered showers and some locally heavy rains, the vast majority of South Georgia acres are under the Exceptional drought classification.

Our only hope is daily rainfall which has slowed again.

So, rain, rain come today.

Rain

2011-06-29T15:57:00.002-04:00

Thunderstorms have become more prevalent in the past week. Not all areas have gotten rain. Those which have will continue to need them.

Acres are down and Texas is still extremely dry.

Farmers report difficulty keeping some peanuts out of wilt and they don't have any peanuts on them yet.

Stands are less than perfect in most places.

We need the rain to continue because it is too late now to plant peanuts.

$900 Virginias and $1000 Valencas

2011-06-24T16:02:00.003-04:00

Growers out west were offered $900 contracts for Virginia type peanuts and $1000 for Valencia type peanuts. Sign up was light.

Question is why not make the same offers in the Southeast? At least give farmers the opportunity to say no her. And, if they say yes then they might get over being mad at the shellers.

Farmers have often expressed frustration to me that the shellers treat folks in other parts of the country better than they do here. It was a big part of the acre cutback and yet I am not sure the peanut industry past the grower ranks understands this.

If something doesn't change pretty soon next year's plantings could be as low as this year's.

Hot an Dry Again

2011-06-21T10:18:00.002-04:00

After last weeks welcome rains, it has gotten hot and dry and we again need rain if we are to make any crop at all.

We need a tropical storm to recharge soil moisture or else we live from shower to shower and suffer every time we get the least bit dry.

Couple that with acres being cut significantly and $1000 peanuts are a reality and when we run out of peanuts before the 2012 harvest peanuts could reach $2000 with very limited peanuts to sell at that level.

Last Week's Rain

2011-06-20T09:54:00.002-04:00

Last week most parts of the Georgia peanut belt got some measurable rain. For most areas it was enough to finally get a stand. Also for most areas it was not nearly enough to make the moisture meet. We will either need a general rain like a tropical storm or will need weekly rainfall to make the crop.

Stands are not that great on dryland that had some of the peanuts come up and the rest of the seed cook in the field.

We are still challenged with the 11 crop.

August in June

2011-06-14T14:47:00.002-04:00

Last week prices were reported as high as 93 cents for kernel sales for processing. Those peanuts were headed to Nicaragua which means less supply for domestic manufacturers.

This week highs continued in the 100's with records being shattered. Windy conditions continued to help the heat send evaporation through the roof.

Wells are having to be lowered and some fields abandoned. Lowering wells also increases energy cost and in some situations means a higher horsepower pumping unit.

Planting is at a standstill and tomorrow is the final deadline for planting if you are to have any coverage under the crop insurance program.

Normally we would expect to see the crop conditions and temperatures we are seeing now in August.

The peanut industry better brace up. Farmers need to hold on to uncommitted peanuts. Save some miraculous circumstance we will run out of peanuts before the 2012 harvest.

I have never seen $2000 per ton peanuts but the way it is shaping up now I might just get to see that next year. At 93 cents, farmers stock should be at $1000 per ton right now.

New Drought Classification

2011-06-08T12:01:00.003-04:00

Even though we have had some showers scattered around lately, the weatherman said today we are likely going to see our drought classification move to exceptional. This is the worst classification for drought..."it just don't get no worse."

For peanuts the last time a drought caused a real price spike of significance was in 1990. That year it happened late season and hurt yields. This year the impact has been early to already reduced planting intentions. Now farmers are concerned about making enough cotton to cover their contracts so many acres which might have still seen peanuts are being diverted to further cotton acres.

I think we are in a critical situation and not sure but if things don't change we might need life support.

Memorial Day Extreme Dought

2011-05-30T17:45:00.002-04:00

Today is Memorial Day 2011. We are in an "extreme drought" by definition. You don't have to have any definitions to realize the situation is bad.

They had predicted rain for the end of last week but what rain we got was light or non-existent and the drought continues at a time when we need to be planting our crops.

The major task farmers found themselves doing during the holiday weekend was irrigating where systems are in place. Corn and cotton are occupying the majority of irrigated acres. An ag chemical salesman suggested to me peanut acres will be just slightly over 400,000 acres in Georgia if the weather does not break. If this comes to pass we will most definitely see 1990 highs for peanut prices. Farmers who have not contracted may find the loan a very viable option. It has actually worked for farmers who waited to put peanuts in the loan after January 1, the past two years.

Heat and Drought Continue

2011-05-25T13:25:00.003-04:00

This is sort of a good news bad news story.

I was speaking to a farmer who had dusted in some cotton and got about two tenths of rain. That was enough to sprout it but not to get it all up to a stand. So, he had to re-plant. Now the weather forecast is for rain but only a tenth of an inch. If that happens he may be in the same situation.

I was in a prayer breakfast this morning at the local Farm Service Center in Tift County. Farmers are upbeat in public as they usually are. Still there was a lot of discussion of being testy and hard to get along with. There was discussion of wells running dry.

Another farmer from about 90 miles as the crow flies from Tifton told me he has a pond he is pumping water in to and out of to irrigate and he can't keep up. He is about 6 inches from the pond being too low to pump from.

Still, I have faith the Lord will send us what we need. In 2007 it happened on June 2nd.

A Record Which Can't Be Broken

2011-05-23T09:16:00.002-04:00

I was listening to the weatherman on WALB in Albany this morning and he says the rainfall in the gauge in Albany is currently at zero for May and with no rainfall expected the balance of the month we could set a new record for the driest May on record.

There is only one good thing I can see out of this situation and that is the record can never be broken, only tied.

We are in a serious rainfall deficit and the economic ramifications are going to be serious if something does not change.

In Sunday School yesterday we discussed the difference in the flooding in Louisiana and the drought here. The flooding is swift and very obvious. A prolonged drought is different. It happens a little bit at a time and never seems to get much media.

We decided we needed to name this so we are calling it the "frog in the kettle" disaster. You see if you put a frog in cold water in a pot and then gradually heat the pot up you can cook the frog without him ever jumping out of the pot. It happens a little at a time.

Nothing else seems to be working so we had better pray for rain.

Wells Running Dry

2011-05-18T11:07:00.002-04:00

I heard my first report this morning of irrigation wells running dry.

Wait, that happens in August or September, right?

Nope it is May and we are dry. Soil moisture below 10% and no rain forecast and on top of that this cool weather should have been before Easter. This morning Crestview FL was cooler than Anchorage AK.

What Rain?

2011-05-16T08:08:00.003-04:00

60 percent chance this last Saturday and yet most areas got little to none. At my house once there was a red cell which went right over the house. It never rained from that cell and the radar lied.

Later in the day the breeze picked up and a black cloud was bearing down on us. It never rained.

In a total of four showers we got less than one one hundredth of an inch of rain.

The Albany weatherman this morning said they missed it and though some areas got some rain they also got hail. Albany has a soil moisture below 10% and the rainfall deficit marches on, now past 6 inches.

Peanut situation is now critical for much of the Georgia Peanut Belt.

Market Uncertainty

2011-05-13T16:10:00.003-04:00

Weather uncertainty coupled with the failure of the peanut industry to offer competitive prices for peanuts compared to cotton and corn are setting the peanut market up for a pretty serious roller coaster ride.

There is really no reason at this point for farmers to take a $650 offer for their uncommitted 2010 crop peanuts because they are going to only go up in value from this point.

2011 plantings are being hampered by dry weather and will only cause intentions to go down and not up. While cotton seed can be dusted in and wait for rain peanuts must have moisture or they should not be planted.

Predictions for a couple days of rain for the weekend are now down to a day of showers which may not provide much relief to the drought.

The annual rainfall deficit passed six inches and the drought has now been upgraded to Severe to even Extreme in the entire Georgia Peanut Belt.

I have said before and will say again...somebody is going to do without peanuts before the 2012 harvest and they might do with out even before then.

Hot and Dry

2011-05-11T16:05:00.002-04:00

It is hot and dry and considering the fact farmers were already pointed toward non-irrigated acres to plant peanuts this year is only getting more interested.

It might be better for a producer to take prevented planted credit on his crop insurance and just leave the land idle if this pattern persists.

The rainfall deficit now exceeds 6 inches on the year and there is no moisture without irrigation in which to plant right now.

The State Climatologist says this weather pattern will remail in place at least until August.

I spoke with one farmer who has uncommitted 10 crop peanuts in the loan and I told him to be patient. If it doesn't rain soon they might be worth $1000 by October.

90 Degrees

2011-04-20T08:38:00.001-04:00

No I am not talking about a right angle but the predicted high temp for today. April 20 and 90 degrees. That is not normal. Also, we are in a rainfall deficit of about four inches and that gets worse daily.

There were hopes that the approaching front would be the one to bring good rainfall but not to be, apparently. We have had all these fronts and they have given us a little, and that is the operative word, rain and so we are not in great shape at this time.

We are at the time when we can start peanut planting but some areas are iffy on soil moisture and need rain to be ready to plant.

I can only hope the current weather pattern moderates and we can get rain during the growing season to carry the crop along. It is pretty sure there is no subsoil moisture to carry us.

Planting Intentions???

2011-04-06T08:29:00.003-04:00

I reviewed the planting intentions report and have a few observations on the stated intention of only a 4% reduction in Georgia: 1. Farmers do not believe this and think it will be a much larger reduction. There is some talk of conspiracy to suppress prices at the farm gate by padding the numbers. 2. It would appear we must be going to create some more land to increase other crops at the level they intend and still only reduce peanuts by 4%. 3. In conversations I have had with others in the industry many of them do not believe the report...but for some reason this has not caused them to offer competitive prices. 4. The industry better get ready to get off their pocket book for 2012 because many farmers have a bad taste in their mouth toward peanuts and cotton prices appear to be strong for next year, at least at this point. 5. This will be a good year to look at the FSA certified acres than speculative reports based on small sample surveys. 6. The anticipated reduction in irrigated acres and the loss of Temik will have some impact on yields...the question is how much?

Peanut Prices

2011-03-30T14:23:00.002-04:00

Well the peanut market is certainly in flux at the moment based on a lot of things but there seems to be at least some imbalance to me when I look at the price being offered to farmers and the price being charged for seed. I put our staff to work and sought out information on peanut prices and medium runners are currently being traded around 80 cents and one report was as high as 83 cents. Well now if you look at tradition seed has typically been 10 cents over medium runner price but for the sake of discussion lets even say 12 cents is within normal. That would be reasonable justification for seed prices being 91 to 94 cents per pound. Well if that is the case then lets look at the other end of the spectrum and see what we find. 80 cent mediums should yield a farmers stock price with at the least an 8 as the first number. So then we took in to account that the 10 crop had some quality concerns so we did a few calculations. Considering blanching cost of 5 to 6 cents and adding 10% more to our normal shrink considerations the price should still have a 7 in front for any uncommitted farmers stock from the 10 crop. I can understand how shelled good prices have escalated because of quality concerns and the concern we could see acres for 2011 in a very tight situation. What is not understandable is how it is farmers stock offerings for uncommitted 10 crop peanuts has held at $550 while the medium price has escalated. Farmers know this, too and in the meeting the other night in Coffee County GA I had a lot of farmers who are really mad at the shellers right now. I have heard the same across the state but it was very vocal in Coffee County. Be they the culprit or not shellers are not currently on the list for growers to send an Easter Basket. I know the best way to change farmer attitudes is with money. If that doesn't happen then I am pretty certain shellers may need to hire a good PR firm.

Shocking Revelation

2011-03-18T09:47:00.003-04:00

At our board meeting this week the preliminary budget was set based on 450,000 acres for Georgia. This is the lowest acreage since 1980 and the rest of the country seems to be following this trend in cutting acres and planting other crops like cotton.

The board also agreed to a projected yield of 3150 which looked at the yield potential of the new varieties but also the belief that irrigated acres would be dedicated to cotton because cotton contracts have to be delivered with no accounting for any act of God.

If all this comes to pass and given the serious quality problems in the 2010 crop causing the crop to sustain heavy blanching loses to clean it up and this will be an interesting year in the peanut market.

I have always thought seriously that contracting some of your peanuts was a good idea but this year I wonder if that is true. I think the most recent contracts of $600 is really not even a floor given the market fundamentals.

I am pretty bearish on price for farmers who have uncontracted peanuts for the 11 crop and even the 10 crop may move up if a farmer has them in the loan and can wait until later in the year.

I think it is becoming a more safe bet that the 10 crop will all be needed to satisfy current demand given the significant kernel loss suffered in the blanching plants.

One early season concern is that many areas are dry and temperatures seem to be warming in a hurry. The current weather pattern is much similar to I believe the 2008 crop when it seemed that the rain angled in from the northwest and played out before it got to very much of the peanut belt.

One hope is that the ENSO currents will move to more neutral as the year progresses but as of yet no one has made that prediction.

Do You Hate Earmarks?

2011-03-01T16:36:00.002-05:00

I am gravely concerned that there is a mood in America today that government is bad and we would do better with no government. There is a mood to cut to the bone in Washington in many areas. One of these areas is Agriculture.

There also seems to be a great deal of pride that they have killed earmarks in Washington. You know the bridge to nowhere was an earmark.

So then lets ask the question are all earmarks a bridge to nowhere?

I asked my Chairman today as we went up the Interstate toward Atlanta what we did without cell phones. We both conducted business as we went on our way. Sunday, week, our pastor emeritus gave the sermon and he talked about finding our way and told of his Garmin recalculating when faced with an errant turn. And on our TV there is discussion of the Da Vinci robotic surgeon. Where in the world did all this technology come from?

The better question is from where out of this world did all this come. Thanks to earmarks and the space program our lives are laced with technological advances which have added to the quality of our lives.

In Agriculture we find much the same story. Cuts were sustained in our Ag research over time and the only way to get critical research funded was to seek earmarks. Today fewer farmers than ever before feed America and the world for less than in our history even given current spikes in commodity markets.

Think about this, in 2040 we will need to feed almost twice the population of what we feed today. There is no more land and no more water, fertilizer, fuel, or any of the other inputs. So we will have to do more for less. It takes twelve years to bring a new peanut variety to commercial use. This mood to stick a long jagged dagger in the heart of Ag Research will at some point and it will be in our lifetimes come back to bite us. With a growing world population and a burgeoning middle class in China just imagine our children going without food because we cannot afford to pay what others can.

Just one last thought; I hope when we dismantle government my share of the infrastructure can be on I-75 where I can put up a toll booth.

Ag Weatherman Murdered

2011-02-23T14:34:00.002-05:00

Weather is by far the most influential factor Mother Nature has to throw at Ag producers. It impacts planting date and harvest. It influences diseases and the management of them. Chill hours or lack of can make or break a peach crop. Heat and drought can both affect peanut quality.

The list goes on and on.

The University of Georgia had an ag weather network which is used widely by farmers. It is also used as an indicator for golf course condition. Even Georgia Power uses it to determine peak usage.

The information found at the weather web site is not available in a usable form with prediction models and so forth at any other place.

So then why is it the University of Georgia would make the decision to kill this beneficial initiative? It cost far less than the benefit it has demonstrated.

All I can say is this is a heck of a way to spur the economy by destroying a valuable tool farmers use to maintain productivity and profitability.

$600 Contract Receives Mixed Reviews

2011-02-22T08:46:00.003-05:00

Last week peanut contracts were offered at $600 and the response by farmers was mixed.

It seems that it may have gotten some peanuts in the SW part of the state which were already likely to be planted locked down by shellers. In East and Southeast Georgia it really didn't move the needle much. This area seems to have an advantage of cotton over peanuts and so it was going to take more than that to compete with cotton.

In Coffee County the County Agent did an informal survey of the growers in a local meeting and found that the $600 had no impact and that those growers are still leaning cotton. As the Agent told me $1.22 cotton is much better to my growers than $600 peanuts so they are going where the opportunity exists.

On a largely related note the local weatherman says our moisture situation right now is worse than it was this time in 2007. We are going in to this crop with a pretty serious rainfall deficit and with our ponds at low levels. Considering the requirement that cotton when contracted must be delivered cotton will compete greatly for irrigated acres and we could see dryland peanuts increase in percentage.

At this point we all know 2011 is going to be an interesting year but I am about to think that we can now anticipate the same of 2012, especially if cotton prices hold for another year.

A Little Fishing for Understanding

2011-02-15T13:47:00.002-05:00

In this blog recently I have been asking a lot of what ifs and I wonder whys.

It is kind of like a fishing trip of sorts because it has offered dialogue with several in the industry.

Fact is there is more uncertainty in the peanut industry at a time when the rest of Agriculture seems to be doing fairly well. Not to say all is bad in peanut world. Last year's yield in Georgia set a record. Peanut consumption is at an all time high. Yet Mother Nature has proven to us she is still in control of things.

If anyone in Congress is listening you need only to look at what is happening in the peanut world right now and you will realize the vagaries of weather and the environment require maintaining some sort of stabilization program for a civilized society to assure an adequate supply of food for their citizenry.

Let's look at what happened last year.

We had the hottest and one of the driest Summer on record. Still consumption of peanut butter and now even snack nuts and candy continued to climb. Candy makers and snack nut roasters even brought new items to the market...take for instance the Snickers PB Squared and Planters new Five Alarm Chili Dry Roasted Peanuts. Both are big hits and even may be considered market movers.

The northern part of the Georgia Peanut Belt suffered from drought and heat and it was evident. If you saw un-irrigated peanuts around Plains at harvest they never got more than a hand wide and were never harvested.

Remember also the string of nights we had for about a month when the temps never dipped below 80 in many areas. Research many years back at the National Peanut Lab told us night time temps have a direct bearing on Aflatoxin contamination. This was predictable already before harvest and it is not just in un-irrigated peanuts. Mother Nature left her mark on the quality of the crop.

So now we have an adequate crop and maybe even a surplus if things were normal but they are not.

Complicate this whole issue with the reemergence of the Burrower Bug as a prominent pest in many areas and the damage it causes to quality and the situation just seems a bit more grim.

The only real way to deal with Aflatoxin of this magnitude and deliver a product that is safe and wholesome and meets both Government and even stricter industry standards is to run it through the blanching plant. This both costs to do in just the charge of the blanchers and also comes at a cost from lost pounds of usable kernels.

Because of the fact that Shellers bought from farmers and forward sold to manufacturers it is now their cross to bear. And, it is coming with a great deal of cost that there is no way to recoup.

Peanut blanchers don't build their business on bad crops but do normal blanching practices in normal years. This year is different. The burden put on blanchers is really being felt. Reports have the current blanching capacity stretched to the limit through some time in 2012.

Shellers cannot afford more risk at this time and as of now manufacturers are concerned but not in the mood to accept that risk in the future. Therein lies the lack of attractive peanut contracts to wrestle acres away from cotton.

I am worried that this is not a particularly good situation for the peanut market for the future. We could well run out of peanuts at some time during the year and factories will have to shutter their doors until the supply resumes. It is hard to continue a growth in consumption under that scenario.

Also, based on value of the commodities I feel certain we will see some shift from irrigation on peanuts to irrigation on cotton. This may or may not prolong the issue of Aflatoxin depending on the 2011 growing season. If you go outside the water rich areas of Southwest GA and look at the Southeastern Peanut Belt in general it is all feasible that irrigated acres of peanuts this year could be at a modern low of 25%. This may be further complicated by CRC insurance coverage on cotton which makes a crop disaster in cotton an easier loss than it does for peanuts which lacks a CRC type program.

So whose fault is all this? I guess you will have to blame Mother Nature for a lot of it. She has shown us our vulnerabilities as an industry under the current peanut program. With all the consternation over farm programs in Washington right now we have some challenges ahead so perhaps we need to have some pretty serious dialogue in the industry going forward. We certainly know where many of the pitfalls are.

Nero Fiddles as Rome Burns

2011-02-09T09:46:00.003-05:00

Like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, peanut buyers seem asleep at the switch this year and are about to run the train off the track.

Shellers blame it on the manufacturers and if that is true I wouldn't take the risk this year either so I cannot point a finger at the shellers too much on this issue.

I write this as I am sitting listening to reports on the research the Commission has funded this year on peanut production. What was most enlightening was what I heard before the meeting. The numerous farmers present say peanut acre are about to plummet. The economist who does comparative numbers of competition of peanuts, cotton, corn and so forth says acres will be at 2009 levels or lower which would mean a cut of 30 percent in acres, give or take.

The 2010 crop has serious quality problems with reports of shockingly dismal out-turns of usable kernels from peanuts which have had to go to the blancher for clean up. Blanching plants are running at capacity and reports are peanuts are even being trucked from the Southeast to Texas for blanching.

Cotton this week passed another barrier at $1.18 which nets to the farmer at about $1.15. Some cotton brokers say $1.35 cotton is a real prospect now. Note $1.15 cotton to the farmer needs a $685 peanut to be competitive.

What does all this mean. Many acres have been committed to cotton. Georgia cotton acres is already slated to be up over 200,000 acres from last year and that is coming from peanuts. Peanut acres will be down and the industry has done this to itself. Carry out of peanuts in to the 2012 crop year could well be far below the 1990 levels. For farmers if you are going to plant it don't get excited about these cheap $1436 for his peanuts.

For consumers...you better buy your peanut butter now.

For the shellers and especially the manufacturers be ready to watch the train run off the cliff because you were asleep at the switch.

When Time Runs Out

2011-02-02T19:56:00.002-05:00

The real question right now is when does time run out to get peanuts planted in 2011.

I was riding with a farmer today who told me he just booked another 400 bales of cotton and 4000 bushels of corn which for him represents about 250 acres of corn. He still has no enthusiasm for peanuts and was offered a $600 contract. He says the price has to be at least $650 to compete with cotton and corn.

Another farmer made the comment the increase in cotton acres is a significant shift from peanuts.

Shellers tell me they can't make competitive offers because the manufacturers don't believe the 2010 crop is as bad as is being reported and much of the trading is still on 2009 crop.

One County FSA office reported shellers wanting to redeem all the peanuts out of the loan immediately. This is odd when you consider the government fronts storage and handling monies to be paid at redemption so the incentive to do this is not normal at this time.

Finally, a farmer from the Southwest part of the state told me at one time he believed $600 would get all the peanuts we need planted. Now he questions if there is any number which could cause that to happen but it certainly is not at $600.

Hold on because this is going to be a rough ride and you might need an oxygen mask to get past the highs in the market at year's end.

Cotton Cotton Everywhere

2011-01-25T16:18:00.003-05:00

Well my November 30 post said farmers are content with planting cotton.

I have been doing grower meetings and it seems farmers are still happy to plant cotton and forgo planting peanuts.

Cotton prices reached 113.74 yesterday and were a bit lower today so farmers had a decision to make and some went ahead and booked more cotton.

Except for a pitiful offer of $550 for southeastern producers back late in the Fall, there has been no activity in the peanut market so farmers are pretty much getting tired of waiting. There is a desire to continue rotations pretty much at previous levels but not at all cost.

In a meeting with two buying points yesterday the comment was made by one operator and agreed to by another that they don't know right now if acres will be off by 25 percent or 50 percent.

In a meeting 100 miles removed from yesterday's meeting farmers told me today that in the absence of a $660 contract they will plant no peanuts. Still another factor which is an indicator was a County Agent who worked through the numbers with one producer who had a cotton yield of 1100 pounds and a peanut yield of 3500 pounds and for that producer cotton and peanuts do not meet mutual profitability until peanuts got to $748 with cotton at $1.10.

Also, the carry out of peanuts in to the 2011 crop will be among the lowest in decades and perhaps as low or lower than the 1990 carryout. In 1990 market fundamentals pushed farmers stock prices to levels up to $1400 per ton with more common offerings being in excess of $1000 per ton.

So what does all this mean?

For farmers uncontracted peanuts, provided something doesn't change and we plant acres, seem very attractive. For shellers who contracted some peanuts, perhaps a up to a fourth of their needs, a $550 farmers stock peanut is increasing in value every day. I would hate to be a peanut product manufacturer this year because the calendar has about run out and decisions on the farm have in all too many cases been made.

My only regret is for the market itself and if we have $1200 peanuts based on the strictest fundamentals of supply and demand then we will likely see a repeat of the loss of market we realized after the 1990 crop.

I am quite optimistic for farmers in the short run because they have other choices and they are exercising their right to make those choices.

Farmers Satisfied with Planting Cotton

2010-11-30T13:13:00.003-05:00

At current market offerings and already strong commitments based on cotton contracts many farmers who would normally grow peanuts seem to be satisfied with parking the peanut planter in lieu of cotton.

It seems cotton fared better under the 2010 drought conditions and the continuation of the La Nina weather impact which has the Georgia State Climatologist predicting warmer and drier than normal conditions through the Winter and Spring at the least and farmers seem happy to stay the course with cotton.

It is hard to argue that kind of logic. We would all rather stay with what does the best for us.

So what does this mean for peanuts? A $550 contract didn't get much interest and time is running out for the peanut market to find new life. Farmers will have a hard time getting financing without a contract. Manufacturers seem to be satisfied that the supply will always be there. Farmers are no longer willing to sell below the true cost. Shellers are caught in the middle.

If no one blinks soon we could see some very interesting price spikes in the market. I remember one farmer selling for $1436 in 1990. With quality issues it is certain we don't have enough peanuts in the pipeline to carry us until harvest 2011 so things may get very interesting.

Complicate this with the fact that cotton has to be delivered under a final contract and once that acre is contracted there is not enough money to get it out of cotton and back in peanuts. Same goes for corn and soybeans. They all have trading markets and sufficient volume to attract speculators. Peanuts does not.

If we get past the first of the year with no sufficient offer to entice producers to contract peanuts and there is any spike in the cotton market at all and Katie bar the door where we will end up as far as price for peanuts in the 2011 crop. Frankly, uncommitted 2010 crop will have to go up to fill the gap created by short plantings for the 2011 crop.

Don't look for a last minute reprieve on acres after corn is planted in February and March.

Buckle your seat belts. This might be one heck of a ride.

Old Time Harvest in 2010

2010-11-23T07:40:00.008-05:00

Tommy Hughes, the radiator repair man and antique tractor collector from Cordele gave us a trip to the past Saturday when he harvested his stacked peanuts with an old Turner stationery peanut picker.

Tommy found the picker in another man's shed and the man said he was about to burn it and sell the metal for scrap. Tommy rescued the picker and Saturday it ran like a well oiled machine.

There was also a stationery hay baler from the same era.

Watch for the video soon on the Peanut Commission You Tube page.

Will There Be Enough Peanuts?

2010-11-08T09:35:00.002-05:00

Cotton prices for next year are approaching dollar cotton even after basis.

The National Center for Peanut Competitiveness has been comparing cotton and peanuts on the Representative Farms.

Discussions with many farmers seem to indicate that many farmers are not willing to plant peanuts at the current offering of $550.

Reports out of the VC indicate farmers are disheartened by this year's peanut crop and it may take $650 to get peanuts grown in that area in lieu of cotton.

Farmers are looking at booking cotton and once they have done that they will have to plant those acres in cotton. Remember cotton contracts are firm delivery contracts because there is a market where shortfalls can be made up.

Growers in Georgia to whom I have spoken seem intent on the fact that compared to cotton and other commodities, soybeans seem to be mentioned regularly, it will now take a contract with a 6 in front for peanuts to sufficiently compete for acres.

The quality and quantity of the 2010 crop has taken care of the pre-plant discussions of a peanut surplus.

For many producers planting decisions may be made by Thanksgiving and certainly by the first of December. If the manufacturers and shellers continue to hold at current offers we could face a shortage of peanuts in 2011-2012. This would make contracting peanuts a bad decision at current levels if we short the peanut crop.

Just one final note...State Climatologist has said hotter than normal and drier normal conditions will continue through a significant portion of 2011.

It may be an interesting year.

The Election is Over

2010-11-03T14:29:00.002-04:00

Well the election is over and hopefully not too much will be taken for granted in the Republican landslide. Likewise the incumbent survivors need to not be in glee for their past record. The fact is the American people have sent the same message they sent two years ago...it is time for Washington to listen to the will of the people.

Gridlock and finger pointing is no longer acceptable and if it continues there will be a new bunch of folks in 2012 as well.

Now how does the sweeping change in Washington play for Agriculture and Peanuts?

With sweeping losses in the south, with those losses went seniority. Our new team will be spending a lot of time learning the system and frankly, the system will consume them if they are not careful. There has been somewhat of a power shift from the South to the Midwest. The South used to keep incumbents there forever and therefore we had power.

It is no secret the Midwest has always believed Southern Agriculture had it too good for too long. There is not a really great understanding of the higher cost structure farmers in the South face.

It will be interesting to see how this shift plays out.

Issues to keep an eye on include payment limits, direct payments, disaster assistance, and more.

It is pretty evident that over time if the market is going to have peanuts they are going to have to assume more of the responsibility.

I don't really see this happening right now.

It seems that no-one in the industry past the grower ranks has a clue that cotton for next year is almost a dollar a pound and soy is over eleven and corn at over five. Once financing is arranged and inputs locked in and forward sales contracted for those other commodities, there will be no turning back.

Currently, cotton prices would indicate from the representative farm model and with significant agreement from farmers, peanut contracts will need to be in excess of $550 to compete for acres. Dollar cotton would command a price in excess of $600 to compete for acres.

Complicate all of this with the fact that the 2010 crop had increased levels of damage and aflatoxin which will further reduce the supply and the prediction from the Georgia State Climatologist that the current weather pattern of hotter than normal and drier than normal conditions will continue through much of 2011 and the market should be exciting.

If the industry fails to make a reasonable offer before mid December farmers will have made their decisions and someone will do without peanuts before the 2012 harvest.

Peanut Harvest Continues

2010-10-11T08:24:00.003-04:00

October is traditionally a dry month but it was dry going in to October in many places and where it wasn't it is now.

Harvest continues and non-irrigated peanuts range from virtually not worth picking to surprisingly good based on where they are and how much rain they got. Irrigated peanuts are off a bit from what we would have anticipated.

Quality of the crop based on environmental conditions is somewhat less than recent years. Burrower Bugs, Aspergillus, Lesser Cornstalk Borers, and general weather conditions have combined to present some challenges.

We had the hottest Summer on record in the Georgia Peanut Belt. Also, there was prolonged drought in many of our peanut counties.

Many grades have been reported to be lower than recent years. Farmers report multiple crops on the vines which makes determining harvest time more difficult. Also, many pods have a blank where a peanut should be, most likely due to excessive heat.

So with all this said could there possibly be any good news?

Well, it has been said that God looks out for fools and little children...Early in this season many in the industry lamented the ills of a surplus of peanuts...I think that has been taken care of this year...question is, which are we? Fools or little children!

With the surplus depleted and cotton prices very strong for next year peanut prices will have to increase sharply if farmers are going to plant peanuts in 2011 and the market should be such to be able to afford stronger prices to the grower. For growers who survive this year that is all good news.

Looking to 2011

2010-10-07T20:21:00.003-04:00

This year has been an interesting year with great expectations and dashed hopes.

Damage from Burrower bugs has caused problems we have not ever seen in any significance. High nighttime temperatures caused an increase in Aspergillus. Drought reduced yields and grades have been quite low. It is safe to say at this point Mother nature has taken care of any discussion of a surplus of peanuts.

Complicate this with equally reduced cotton yields and even with increased prices for cotton many farmers find themselves in a difficult situation and wonder what 2011 will hold for them.

For 2011 peanut prices will have to increase if farmers plant them. Cotton this week was over a dollar a pound and contracts at two cents off of basis for next year are up to right at 83 cents. Some experts say cotton prices will go higher next year.

From the work done by the University's National Center for Peanut Competitiveness we know that in Georgia it will take at least $515 to $538 per ton to compete for acres with 83 cent cotton. What is more, uncommitted peanuts in the hands of farmers this year should still likely face some upside potential with some offerings already at $485.

Looking forward, the state climatologist says the current weather pattern will continue an that the drought will extend in to 2011 with hotter and drier conditions than normal. How long the pattern continues is yet to be known but it could well mean we go in to the season with inadequate soil moisture in some areas.

On the consumption front there are some bright spots. First, peanut butter sales are at a record high pushing consumption to record levels. Also, exciting news from Planters. Coming out in a couple months is the "Five Alarm" dry roasted peanuts. I am well convinced we could see a mini boom in the snack nut market with this introduction. The introduction of honey roast, now two decades ago, caused a real growth in the peanut market. This product has potential to have a similar, if perhaps smaller impact.

Mexican Peanut Mole

2010-09-28T13:52:00.001-04:00

Mexican Peanut Mole

10 oz. can Rotelle Mexican Lime and Cilantro
½ c. creamy peanut butter
6 oz. can pineapple juice
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 TBSP. honey
1 TBSP. brown sugar
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
In a sauce pan with a wire whisk mix the ingredients and bring to a boil. Continue over low medium heat for about ten to twelve minutes until the sauce becomes consistent and the tomatoes are cooked well. This sauce is hard to over-cook if you keep whisking. Serve over pork or poultry. Top with chopped peanuts, whole kernel corn, and fiesta blend cheese for an added touch.

Savory Cornbread and Honey/Cinnamon Peanut Spread

2010-09-28T13:46:00.003-04:00

Savory Corn Bread

1 pkg. Martha White Mexican Cornbread Mix
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
¼ cup cocktail peanuts chopped
¼ cup white whole kernel corn

Mix ingredients and bake according to directions on the package.

Honey/Cinnamon Peanut Spread

½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ tsp cinnamon
2 TBSP Honey

In a mixing bowl with a hand mixer blend the ingredients until fully mixed and the texture is silky.

Belgian Waffle with Maple Peanut Sauce

2010-09-27T16:28:00.003-04:00

Maple Peanut Sauce

½ c maple syrup
¼ c creamy peanut butter

In a sauce pan combine the syrup and PB and with a wire whisk over medium heat blend the ingredients together in to a creamy sauce.

Serve over Belgian waffles with fruit and whipped topping (optional.)

Top with chopped peanuts.

Mandarin Orange - Peanut Butter Pie

2010-09-27T16:25:00.002-04:00

8 oz. Lite Cool Whip
8 oz. fat free cream cheese
¼ c. creamy peanut butter
¼ c. granulated sugar
9” graham cracker pie crust
11 oz. can mandarin oranges

2 TBSP granulated sugar
1 tsp corn starch

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix with hand mixer until the batter becomes a silky mixture. Put the batter in the pie crust and put in the refrigerator while you prepare for the next step.

Drain the can of mandarin oranges saving the juice in a small sauce pan. With a wire whisk blend the 2 TBSP of sugar and the tsp of corn starch in to the mandarin orange juice. Bring the heat to high and continue whisking until the mixture comes to a boil. Lower heat and continue to whisk at a boil for about three minutes. Remove from the heat and let set as you continue preparation of the pie.

Remove the pie from the refrigerator and in a circular pattern place the orange wedges on top of the pie. Take the saucepan with the glaze in it and stir until the glaze begins to thicken. Pour the glaze evenly across the top of the pie.

Put the pie back in the refrigerator for a minimum of three hours to set.
Optional: Serve with whipped topping.

What Can We Do About the Weather

2010-09-27T16:19:00.003-04:00

Well we needed a bit of a shower in places to make the dry land peanuts where we could dig them. At the same time cotton farmers certainly didn't want rain and those who had peanuts on the top of the ground didn't need it either. A small shower would have been tolerable but not a couple inches and then the weather cooling off after the front goes through.

This is kind of an insult to injury situation. Too hot and no rain and now rain and too cool. I guess I am never satisfied.

Someone told me the other day at Plains at the peanut festival how the farmers were going to make a lot on cotton because the price was over a dollar. I reminded them most farmers had already booked most of what they would produce and for the guy who booked too much he would have to buy it at that price to cover his needs and would lose money.

It takes a very dedicated and special person to farm with the risk it entails.

Where is Fall

2010-09-22T08:53:00.002-04:00

Here we are in the hottest Summer on record in South Georgia. It is supposed to feel like Fall but even though this morning was a bit cooler I still don't feel it.

Peanut prediction models continue to show a yield decline. One county agent told me the dry land peanuts he has looked at have mold on the kernels when they shell the peanuts to look at them. The hope of rain from the active hurricane season we were to have just never came. There have also been reports of Seg. 2 peanuts which would indicate damage due to the dry weather. The ground where farmers can't irrigate is hard and we really need a rain just to get where we can dig in those fields. As if this is not bad enough the State Climatologist says the drought will likely continue in 2011.

It is heartbreaking to me to talk to farmers who I know are good farmers and are telling me they may not be able to farm next year. The concern is this may be the straw which broke the camel's back. It costs so much to make a crop on a commercial sized family farm and when you look at losses of half to three quarters of a million dollars that is hard to overcome.

I think all the talk about a surplus of peanuts has pretty much evaporated with the excessive heat and drought.

If I was a farmer with un-contracted, irrigated peanuts I would be as patient as the banker would let me be because I truly believe the price should improve from this point forward.

Now for 2011, if cotton prices hold it is going to be hard for the industry to excite farmers about planting peanuts in lieu of cotton unless pre-plant contracts for peanuts have a 5 for the first number and in some areas that number may even need to have a 5 or better as the second number.

I have been looking at the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness representative farms and those farms support my gut feel.

One bright spot came when a farmer told me his input costs were down from last year on a per unit basis.

Sadly, we could have used some disaster assistance for last year's wet harvest or for this year's excessive heat and drought but USDA chose to help farmer in Arkansas but little anywhere else and Congress failed dismally by not passing a disaster bill which would have helped farmers across the country. Don't fuss and ask why we should have the government bail out farmers, farm programs have stabilized food prices and just think about going to the store and finding empty shelves and prices double or triple what they are now. It is good business for everyone who likes to eat.

I am pretty well convinced many farmers have found themselves in a debt crisis but it seems Wall Street speculators are more important than the folks who feed and clothe us.

Georgia Peanut Tour -- day two

2010-09-15T16:18:00.005-04:00

Todd Powell, a Marion County farmer discussed the challenges he has faced this year in producing his peanut crop. He runs a very conservative farm and has pine seedlings as a non-traditional crop enterprise.

It has been a hot dry year in his area and his irrigated peanuts look good but the cost is extreme.

The Georgia Peanut Tour went through the Lance factory in Columbus in the morning and then began farm tours this afternoon.

The next stop will be Chase Farms in Oglethorpe.

I have had the special pleasure of having Gary Black ride with me today. Gary is a long time friend and though I cannot, as a representative of the Commission, endorse him I am glad that things look favorable for him. If he gets to be a big successful politician I live with the confidence he will still be my friend above all.

September 14 -- I wish this was our entire crop

2010-09-14T17:31:00.004-04:00

I was on my way to the Georgia Peanut Tour in Americus and went on one of my shortcuts to get here from Tifton. I went Tifton to Warwick to Vienna and then to Americus.

Northern Tift County looked pretty good, northern Turner County was dry and showed the hot dry summer, Arabi in southern Crisp was really dry, the Arabi/Warwick highway was like a roller coaster with ups and downs, Coney road in northern Crisp looked like the Garden of Eden and then as I went in to Dooly County it got dry again, and on my way to Americus from Vienna I came across this field. These are dryland peanuts southwest of Vienna and east of the Flint River. I wish so badly the Georgia crop all looked like these peanuts and frankly this field. Then as I crossed the river into Sumter County the conditions were the worst of the trip. This bad streak goes west to Early County and East toward Dublin. It is easy with a little travel to see the fact, Mother Nature can be a bit fickle.

Ag and Patriot Day in Rochelle

2010-09-14T17:23:00.004-04:00

This past Saturday Rochelle, Georgia had their annual Ag and Patriotism Day. It was hot and the gnats were there and so was the Peanut Commission with those freshly cooked, southern fried peanuts.

Look at those tractors. The world would have been really hungry if those hadn't come along. Now they are about like toys compared to the modern tractors of today.

Georgia Peanut Tour and Other Info.

2010-09-14T16:45:00.002-04:00

Go to the Georgia Peanut Commission website to see YouTube videos, photos, and the Peanut Tour blog to keep up with the 2010 Georgia Peanut Tour. www.gapeanuts.com

2010 Georgia Peanut Tour on Twitter

2010-09-14T16:42:00.002-04:00

For updates on the Georgia Peanut Tour on Twitter go to www.twitter.com/georgiapeanuts

Crop Conditions

2010-09-14T15:38:00.002-04:00

Many of the farmers I have been talking to and county agents as well tell me next year will be a tough situation for many farmers.

The heat and drought has taken its toll on many farmers and I am hearing reports of farmers who will not be able to farm again next year in many areas.

Looking at crop conditions it is very spotty. I can find peanuts and cotton which are absolutely beautiful but I can find more it seems which look very very bad.

At this juncture I am very curious as to our ability to make the 3400 pound peanut yield the last crop report suggested. Where farmers did make yields the cost is prohibitive for profitability. The other thing I am hearing is lower grades than in the past several years.

Complicate this with higher cotton prices and the farmers who may survive are telling me they need a $500 peanut contract to encourage them to plant peanuts in lieu of cotton. Remember cotton does not require the rotation peanuts does.

Georgia Peanut Tour

2010-09-14T15:18:00.002-04:00

The hot topics session has begun and the first speaker is Scott Angle, the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia.

His message is not one which is pleasant. Discussion of selling research farms, reduction in the local Cooperative Extension Staff, all of the changes will be noticeable. The budget has dictated these changes and we will likely not again see those programs restored. They have to deal with record enrollment and maintaining the teaching programs.

Georgia Agriculture actually needs trained employees.

Another factor in academia is that we cannot be everything to everyone anymore. This is going to be across the nation and not just in Georgia. There will have to be cooperation with the other Land Grant Universities to maximize resources.

Use of technology will have to be used more.

The UGA College of Ag budget has been cut 25% but other Universities have taken even deeper cuts.

The mission remains the same but the delivery may be quite different.

Another change which will have a profound impact on the peanut industry is the hiring of, with the help of the University of Georgia Research Foundation, a legume geneticist who will assist in genetic mapping, marker assisted selection to assist our breeding programs.

Georgia may become the leadeer in this area and has a great program for public breeding and the inclusion of this position will serve to super charge this effort.

UGA will be in the peanut breeding program for the long term.

The economy is currently having a negative impact at the federal level but the State budget seems to be improving a bit.

Earmarks are necessary for ag research when there is noone else will fund the research. These are the core programs on which everything else is developed. Many of the earmarks go toward research which developes sustainable methods of producing. Companies don't always want to fund research which will reduce their business. Peanut farmers have benefitted from earmarks and therefore the peanut industry has benefitted through a continued stable supply.

Crop Conditions

2010-08-04T09:29:00.002-04:00

I know it has been a while since I have been on but sometimes you just don't have much to say.

Today I have something to say. Frank McGill who was the peanut expert in Georgia for decades and is still respected once told me it was foolish to predict a peanut crop on the 4th of July. Now we plant a bit later and so the same may be true even for the 4th of August. A lot can still happen between now and harvest.

June and July were among the hottest on record and currently Albany, Georgia which is in the heart of the peanut belt of Georgia is running a ten inch rainfall deficit. It seems that rains have been very irregular and for some reason the place which gets rain today also gets it tomorrow. It is a bit feast and famine.

One thing I can say for certain if this weather does not change the peanut crop and crops in general are going to be hurt pretty bad.

Last week on my travels through south Georgia I saw cotton which was about 8 inches tall blooming out the top (not a good situation), I saw cotton which was wilted, I saw soybeans which had drawn up from the heat and drought. I also saw several fields of peanuts which were not yet lapping and the worst, the plants were only about 8 inches wide in the row.

I am not sure non-farm folks could understand my next statement but I am actually praying for a tropical storm with lots of rain and no wind. The folks who are harvesting corn may not agree with me on this but we need a good soaking rain and for temperatures to moderate a bit, especially the nighttime temps which also hurt peanut yield and lead to lessened quality as well due to the potential for A flaavus contamination.

And for irrigated producers it just means cost is going up.

Well, just keep the faith and keep the prayers coming.

Peanut Planting Coming to a Close

2010-06-09T08:44:00.002-04:00

Peanut planting is coming to a close and I am pretty certain we did not plant what the earlier planting intentions said. I will really be a bit surprised if we increased much at all over last year's acreage. The National Center for Peanut Competitiveness told us early on to compete fully with cotton acres we would have to have a $475 contract and contracts never really made it there except for some sweetheart deals.

With cotton seeming to remain strong and the fact that all predictions seem to say cotton will be even stronger next year it will be interesting to see where the 2011 contracts finally end up.

Since we were forced in to the marketing loan program in 2002 we have certainly ridden a roller coaster in the market place.

As far as the crop conditions we look really good at this point, maybe the best start on a crop in years. High temps this week are going to zap the dryland pretty quickly. That is not bad at this point because we have yet to stress the crop and it has been my observation the best peanut crops are stressed early and get rain during podset.

2010-04-14T13:28:00.001-04:00

Tortellini with Creamy Peanut Sauce

2 - 9 oz. Buitoni Spinach Cheese Tortellini
1 - 12 oz. can evaporated milk
¼ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
¼ tsp. salt
1/3 cup Finely shredded Italian Blend Cheese (mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, romano, fontina, and Asiago)
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour
½ of an 8 oz. jar of Mezzetta sun-ripened, dried tomatoes
Cocktail peanuts to chop for garnishing
Peanut oil

On a cutting board liner chop a handful of cocktail peanuts to use as a garnish and put them in a dish.

On the same liner take half of the jar of tomatoes and dice them up. Put the tomatoes in a large glass mixing bowl.

Cook the tortellini according to directions.

While the pasta is cooking begin your sauce.

Over low heat in a sauce pan, with a wire whisk blend the evaporated milk, the peanut butter, the Italian seasoning, and the salt until blended. Sprinkle in the flour gently and slowly as you continue to whisk the sauce. Continue whisking while adding the Italian blend cheese and whisk until the cheese is melted and fully mixed in to make a creamy sauce.

When the pasta is done drain it and put it in the bowl with the tomatoes and toss it all together. Then pour the sauce in the bowl and continue to toss until everything is mixed together.

Serve in a bowl and garnish with the chopped peanuts and a sprinkling of the shredded Italian cheese.

Rainfall Deficit

2010-03-29T14:13:00.002-04:00

Well now, yesterday was the first day since Halloween that the mercury got to 80 degrees.

We are also about three inches below normal on rainfall for 2010.

Corn is certainly having a bit of a time getting up to a stand, the sub-surface moisture is still adequate, some spots are even boggy, there is cotton still being picked from last year's crop, and to say that the situation is a bit odd is an understatement.

I heard a climatologist last week explain this as a part of the El Nino cooling in the Pacific.

On another note cotton prices seem to be poised to rise if there is no major world economic failure. This from a cotton market expert who said stocks are low and the only thing that can cause a problem is the general economy having a major downturn.

I would say this could make for a very interesting peanut market at the end of 2010.

President Adams' Budget

2010-03-05T09:15:00.003-05:00

I along with about 100 percent of the folks in Georgia Agriculture were appalled by the budget cuts proposed for the University of Georgia. Essentially a fourth of the cuts came, disproportionately, out of the College of Agriculture.

The biggest uprising came from his suggestion to do away with 4-H and sell the camps at Rock Eagle and Jekyll Island. That is expected when you look at the number of children currently in the 4-H program and also the fact that there are many more of us who are products of 4-H.

I hope we will not lose sight of the other cuts he proposed. Eliminating half of the County Extension offices in the state would have far reaching impact and it would not be good. Margins on our farms today are as small as they have been in decades. Farmers are struggling to meet their cash flow and seldom are we able to build any equity...in fact many farmers find themselves in the unfortunate situation of farming up their equity.

Farmers need to have ready access to the results of research which will help them find opportunities to earn a profit. The County Agent is the one who can get them this information. To eliminate County Agents creates other hardships within the system. Specialists who provide the information to the County Agents and do applied research will become nothing more than area agents and they will not have the time to do the applied research which proves core research and its use on the farm. Also, last year the Peanut Commission funded local research plots with a dozen county agents in Georgia. This allows farmers to see various research trials and the results locally. I hope you get the picture on why eliminating half the County Agents in this state is a bad idea.

Let's then shift to the closing of critical research stations. Let me use Atapulgus as an example. The research station at Atapulgus has a long and sordid history. Researchers have done everything they can wrong there to build up disease, weed, nematode, and other pest pressures. Sounds terrible doesn't it? We should close it and sell it, Right???

Absolutely not! We need that facility to test the results of research findings, to do variety trials of new varieties so we can understand how they respond under the worst of conditions. Growing peanuts in a greenhouse can be pretty simple once you learn the technique. Growing peanuts with everything Mother Nature can throw at you like at Atapulgus is where the rubber hits the road.

I know we seem to be being used as a pawn in a chess game between the UGA and the Legislature but frankly agriculture in Georgia is way to important to be playing games with.

I hope this fact is not lost on the leaders of this state.

Winter Meeting Season

2010-02-28T17:03:00.003-05:00

We have been in the midst of Winter Meeting Season so I have done a pretty poor job of updating my post.

March is pretty full yet. I have five work days in which to schedule anything and know I have at least one meeting to schedule yet in the month.

Next Sunday we will be at the Atlanta Motor Speedway doing a promotion again this year. Last year we had a great day at the race and this year we are ready for a repeat.

Peanut farmers and their families can get a discounted ticket. Contact the Peanut Commission for the information you need to do this.

Georgia Peanut Farm Show

2010-01-19T08:53:00.003-05:00

Thursday we will have the annual Georgia Peanut Farm Show at the Civic Center in Albany. This is an educational event where farmers can learn about and even see what is new in producing peanuts.

We have an exhibit floor full and will even provide lunch for our farmers.

I love working with farmers. They feed, house, and clothe us. What a noble occupation.

It is going to rain Thursday so I look forward to seeing all of our farmers there.

It's Cold Outside

2010-01-06T10:19:00.002-05:00

This sort of reminds me of those Winters we had years ago where there was ice on the water trough.

It has been a long time since we have had sustained cold like this. You can pretty much bet it has killed some bugs and weeds this year. I hope this is the start of a perfect growing season. I want just one of those before I retire.

There is sure a lot of uncertainty right now. The Cotton Market is seeming to trend stronger and an increase of a million acres, experts say would not glut the market given the current carry-in numbers.

Farmers are telling me that $425 on peanuts will tend to cause plantings to be pretty conservative, probably not much different than last year. If cotton, corn and bean prices are even stronger then we could actually see a decline in acres of peanuts from last year.

I think the situation is even more tenuous in some of the other states. Growers in Texas are telling me they can't keep doing what they have been doing because they are going broke. From the numbers I am seeing off of the representative farms I don't think these farmers are lying to me. I wish some folks in the industry would take a look at what the representative farms are showing right now; Spend time, understand farm cost structures, and learn from the numbers what is going on out on the farm.

Well we will know something pretty soon because farmers are going to have to line up financing and make their cropping decisions. They may have some flexibility but in late February when corn planting starts in the southern tier decisions will soon become etched in stone.

What a year...what a decade

2009-12-31T12:23:00.002-05:00

It is hard to believe that this is the last day of the first decade of the 2000's. It seems like only yesterday that folks debated when the Millennium actually started. Remember the fear of computers not understanding the year 2000. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter were all a mystery.

Fast forward to 2009. It was a difficult weather year for farmers. Our normal rainfall is about 50 inches in a year and 2009 graced us with over 80 inches of rain and a lot of that was at harvest time. There is still cotton in the fields and the quality and yield is dropping.

Peanut yields were good in most areas but as a farmer told me last week he and his neighbors won't plant peanuts at $425 because there is no money in them. When he figured his taxes he said he paid to grow peanuts. Strangely, he assured me he knows a $525 peanut would cause us to bust the market again.

One bright spot is the new varieties we have. Yields have increased noticeably during the decade of the zeros. I had one farmer tell me he never thought he could have a farm average of 5500 pounds.

I have to hope that the decade of the 10's will take us to yields over three tons and maybe even 7000 pounds for our best producers. The investment growers have made through their checkoff dollars in the breeding programs are certainly paying off.

Ten years ago auto steer tractors were a mere vision. Now they are common place and we may find them even more useful as we look to spraying fungicides at night.

Another bright spot is consumption. Consumption of peanut butter, which is the foundation of our market, has continued to be strong.

It is truly my wish for my farmers that we can have a prosperous year and decade. I am saddened to hear really good farmers talk about the economic hardships they are facing. Remember that farmers feed the world.

God Bless!

What a Harvest

2009-11-24T08:40:00.004-05:00

The harvest season has been quite busy for the Commission as well as the farmers in Georgia.

The Commission has been in the midst of the Georgia Peanut Tour; did a promotion at Talladega at the race; sampled peanuts at peanut festivals in Brooklet, Plains, and Sylvester; had a great exhibit at Sunbelt; participated in peanut butter donations to the food banks with Georgia Farm Bureau, the National Peanut Buying Points, the American Peanut Shellers, and several individuals; did chefs demos at the Georgia National Fair and the Southern Women's Show; have been to several school ag days; participated in the South Campus Tailgate with the College of Ag at the UGA/Kentucky game; had about 300 banks participating in Georgia Peanut Bank Week; participated in the peanut exhibit at the National Peanut Festival; and the list goes on.

All of this while farmers have battled one of the worst harvest seasons in recent years.

I have made several observations in my 24 crops at the Peanut Commission and some have to do with harvest:

1. Rain at harvest time does not improve average yields. Though the late season warmth and rain was a blessing to some this year who were pushed late in planting for those peanuts planted in May the rain at harvest was not a help. Persistent rain and cooler temperatures have helped no-one late in the harvest.

2. Having to use a lifter to get the peanuts back up after they were rained on post digging is an added cost and does not improve yields, though if done right I suppose the damage is minimal.

3. It is hard to dig peanuts out of mud and do a good job of digging and getting the dirt off of the vines and nuts.

4. If by chance you have to re-shake peanuts, harvest losses increase. This may be good for a dove shoot but not for profitability on the farm.

5. Bad dogs have long tails and this harvest sure seems to act like a bad dog with a long tail.

6. Farmers are amazing folks that they can deal with the vagaries of weather and not go absolutely crazy.

7. Peanuts are not the only crops affected by bad weather.

But then as I enter this time of Thanksgiving I am reminded of everything I have to be thankful for. I have my Faith, my family, and my friends. I work in a great and noble industry. Our farmers have never let me go hungry. I am truly blessed.

So as you sit down this Thursday to the feast of the season give thanks for all the blessings and somehow the ills of a bad harvest seem to fall in to perspective. In August I wondered if we would even have a crop to harvest. Stop and thank God for the bounty and thank him for the American Farmer.

Amen.

Never Satisfied

2009-10-14T09:56:00.004-04:00

No this is not what my wife tells me, it is how I am about the weather right now.

We had rain when we needed to plant so then that meant our harvest would be late because planting was.

We needed late season rains and warm weather and we have had that of recent.

Now we need it to quit raining and dry up and stay warm. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the near term forecast.

Except for an occasional shower to make the ground ripe to dig peanuts, I would be happy for the rain to stop now and wait until harvest is complete before starting back.

Much more of this will cost us yield and money.

Association for Dressings and Sauces

2009-10-13T09:07:00.003-04:00

I had the opportunity to speak to the ADS membership on crisis management at their annual meeting this past weekend. They have a small but seemingly active group and many of their members also have a peanut interest.

Every time I review what we went through earlier this year I become more and more convinced that there need to be severe penalties for those, on whom the evidence is conclusive were malicious bad actors. The converse of that needs to be that when the Government makes a mistake because they didn't have all the facts, as happened in the tomato scare, the government should have to compensate those injured to the extent of their injuries.

The best crisis management plan is to do a good job and never have a crisis to deal with.

We produce a food product and from the farm supplier to the supermarket must keep the consumer in our focus.

To that end we are working on a food safety certification program for farmers. It would work somewhat like the current system for acquiring and maintaining a pesticide license. It is truly my belief that this approach of education and certification is far better than a regulatory approach which should always be a last resort in making gains toward even greater food safety.

Nutty Stuffed Chops

2009-10-08T09:16:00.002-04:00

½ cup salted roasted peanuts, very finely chopped
1 cup packed raw spinach, chopped
4 oz. crumbled blue cheese
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
6 boneless 1” thick pork chops
6 slices bacon
Stand pork chops on edge and cut a slit lengthwise to make a pocket for the stuffing. Fill pocket with the peanut, spinach, and blue cheese mixture. Wrap bacon around the edge of the pork chop, covering slit. Secure with toothpicks.
Cook in covered cast iron dutch oven over medium high heat for 22 minutes turning occasionally to insure uniform cooking.

God Looks Out for Fools, Little Children, and Farmers

2009-10-08T08:25:00.003-04:00

I am pretty well convinced that the current weather has been more a blessing than a curse to the peanut farmers of Georgia.

We had said all along we needed it to be wet through the first part of October and rains were pretty general earlier this week. We also wanted it to be warmer than normal and with highs in the 90's that is coming true.

If we could get this next rain this weekend and then stay frost free for several weeks it would go a long way toward making a crop in Georgia.

Maybe we can make 3500 pounds but if we do then you had better believe that miracles do happen.

Back in the Test Kitchen

2009-10-07T15:16:00.003-04:00

I was back in the test kitchen today and finished the testing on my stuffed pork chop recipe I am using at the GA National Fair and the Southern Women's Show in Jacksonville.

It is stuffed with finely chopped peanuts, chopped spinach, and blue cheese crumbles. Then you wrap it with bacon, covering the pocket and stuffing and hold that in place with two round toothpicks (flat toothpicks are worthless for this and other purposes including picking your teeth.)

I cooked them in a cast iron dutch oven on medium high for 22 minutes turning several times during cooking to keep them from getting done on the outside before the inside was done. I kept the dutch oven covered while cooking.

I served it today with cranberry-nut couscous (you know it has coarsely chopped peanuts in it), steamed green beans, and a spoon of whole berry cranberry sauce.

We should have the recipe for the chop in print some time tomorrow.

Here is the picture to make your mouth water. Let me know what you think?

Busy Weekend

2009-09-27T21:15:00.004-04:00

This has been a busy weekend.

Yesterday I was at the Plains Peanut Festival. There was a good crowd and the Peanut Commission had fresh fried peanuts to let folks sample as well as picking up recipe brochures.

There were also grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the Buying Points Association and samples of Jif, Planters, and Mars products.

There was the usual parade and of course President and Mrs. Carter were there.

Here are some pictures from Plains.

Then today we had a Television crew in shooting a feature on peanuts for the program America's Heartland.

They were on Armond Morris' farm and got to see maturity testing, digging, picking and got to sample boiled peanuts.

Here are some pictures from their visit.

You can also go to You Tube and find videos on the Peanut Commission page.

Wrapping up the Georgia Peanut Tour

2009-09-17T15:18:00.004-04:00

The weather was pleasant this morning for the third and final day of the Georgia Peanut Tour.

We stopped at two farms including this one in Irwin County to see peanut digging and picking.

We also stopped at Morris Ag Center to hear from Armond Morris who is a farmer and agribusinessman and also the Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

The Georgia Peanut Tour concludes this evening with a tour of the Lang Research Farm which is part of the University of Georgia's College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

Be sure to check out the video on YouTube. You can link to it through the GPC website at www.gapeanuts.com.

More of Day Two

2009-09-16T17:22:00.004-04:00

Since my last post we have been to a tractor and equipment dealer and a weather monitoring station and now are at Doster Warehouse in Rochelle, GA. Doster is a family owned shelling business which is owned and operated by Jack and Norma Chastain. They are gracious hosts and are solid performers in the peanut industry. Just all around good folks.

On the Tour

2009-09-16T12:19:00.006-04:00

This morning we have done a visit in Jeff Davis County of a field demonstration plot that Tim Varnerdore is doing with Will Ellis, a local farmer. They have either been too wet or too dry but that is farming. The crop still has a way to go as does much of Georgia's crop. We have about 135 folks on the tour right now.

I have just uploaded a couple videos to YouTube and you can access those through our website, http://www.gapeanuts.com/.

We have just been touring the facilities at Southeastern Gin and Peanut Company. This is a farmer owned buying point which is state of the art. They have a phenomenal system and want a nice surprise, wireless Internet that works.

The AC on the bus went out on the way to the first stop but the bus company had two busses here at Southeastern by the time we had just gotten here well.

Georgia Peanut Tour Day One Recap

2009-09-16T06:06:00.002-04:00

Day one had the Hot Topics seminar and you guessed it the hot topic in the peanut industry is still food safety.

We heard from speakers from the CDC, UGA Food Science Department, JLA which is a major testing lab in the food industry, and also from John Beasley who farmers kind of view as Mr. Peanut in Georgia. John did a good job of reminding the rest of the industry that farmers do a good job of adopting good management practices but also that peanuts still grow in water and dirt. Both of those things need to be put in check at the farm and once peanuts are harvested water and dirt become the enemy of peanut processing.

Another presentation which was quite informative was done by Dr. Stanley Fletcher on peanut crop specifics and the economic health of peanut farms across the country. Of 22 Representative farms the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness has developed from Virginia to New Mexico only three or four find them selves in a positive situation. All the rest are in the red and Fletcher says this is not a sustainable situation if it goes on long term.

Today the field visits start. Can't wait to see some farmer hospitality and have some fresh boiled peanuts.

Georgia Peanut Tour

2009-09-15T10:11:00.002-04:00

Be sure to watch my blog and also the Peanut Commission blog and web page for updates on the Georgia Peanut Tour. Check out www.gapeanuts.com for links.

August has flown by

2009-09-01T14:03:00.002-04:00

I can't believe August is already over. It has flown by.

Crops are progressing well in most places though still way behind and that won't end until harvest. I was by fields in Tift, Turner, Wilcox, and Dodge counties yesterday and there are some peanuts which look really good and some which are spotty and haven't half way made it to covering the middles.

The best looking peanuts seem to be the ones planted conventional tillage and on a bed like we used to plant peanuts. Not that many of those there anymore because we just can't afford to grow them that way.

I can also tell you that weeds are a problem and production budgets in the future will have to include hand weeding. A lot of folks have seen this increase their cost $50 or more an acre.

It will be an interesting year and the future will also be very interesting.

Texas Institute of the Peanut Leadership Class

2009-08-09T22:43:00.006-04:00

We are in Lubbock, TX tonight for the Texas Institute of the current Syngenta Crop Protection / American Peanut Shellers Association Peanut Leadership Class. This institute is always a great learning experience for the guys from the Southeast and is a true lesson in Southern Hospitality at its best. Nobody goes away hungry either.

Tonight was a fun night with more get acquainted time and a little bit of work. Tomorrow morning we go to the classroom and then on tours of local agriculture.

The crowd took over Abuelo's patio for a while and had a nice time getting reacquainted. I just hope by the time we get through a couple more of these I know the guys by name.

Tomorrow we will be doing some media training and sure could have used it tonight as a guy who claimed to be with the CBS affiliate showed up to do interviews. I sure hope our guys did OK with no media training. I guess we will know in the morning.

Here are some pictures of tonight's events.

Elvis Bread

2009-08-04T07:51:00.002-04:00

Last night I was in the kitchen and noticed two very ripe bananas which were going to not be eaten unless I rescued them. They were the kind that have the really dark brown spots on them. The kind you make pudding or bread out of.

My brain went in to gear and I developed a new recipe...well the measurements still will have to be discovered by my Administrative Assistant or anyone bold enough to go with my abouts and try this. You see I don't measure, I just pour and mix and hope for the best.

I poured about a cup of store brand buttermilk pancake mix, about a cup of self rising flour, about a third cup of Jif Extra Chunky peanut butter in a mixing bowl and folded the peanut butter in the floury mix until it was kind of all the way through.

Then I took about a quarter cup of chopped dry roasted peanuts, about an eighth of a cup of sugar, an egg, about a third cup of skim milk and about a third cup of water and with a wire whisk blended all of that together to a thick but pourable batter.

Then I took the two bananas and sliced them lengthwise and then crosswise and mixed that in but left them coarse enough that you have bites of banana throughout the bread.

I have some small loaf pans so I sprayed them with the butter cooking spray and filled them just slightly over half full, maybe about three fifths full and baked in our oven at 400 for 30 minutes (but I warn you our oven cooks slow so it might take a bit less than that.)

I cooled in the pan for about two minutes and then dumped them from the pan and cooled them on a wire rack.

I sampled them when still warm but firm. Mmmm I loved them. Made a nice breakfast this morning, too and tomorrow I will know how well they store in Tupperware.

Be bold try it before we have a final recipe.

Crop Conditions

2009-08-03T10:21:00.002-04:00

Seems that the further south and west I go the better the crop conditions look. Baldwin County Alabama looks about like the Garden of Eden. The panhandle of Florida looks pretty fair though it is late like everywhere else. Southwest Georgia is doing a lot of catching up with recent rains and I actually saw water standing in the fields in some spots yesterday. The crop is late everywhere and there are still some weedy fields and some fields with really skippy stands. You can also find fields almost anywhere in Georgia where the middles are yet to lap. We are a long way away from being done with this crop and I am still very worried about our ability to trick Mother Nature and make October wet in the first two weeks and warm for the next two.

The weather forecast is also calling for a heatwave for the coming weekend. We need mid 90's and not high 90's. Also, a ridge of high pressure seems to be poising itself to locate over us so the rain will go away in a hurry if that situation is prolonged.

I am pretty well convinced that Mother Nature is doing her part to eliminate any surplus of peanuts we may have at this point.

What a Day

2009-07-28T21:35:00.003-04:00

I came up to my lake house last night to get a jump start on some serious yard work and cleaning up. Trying to get things ready for a visit in a few weeks from my Sunday School Class.

Yesterday I picked up sticks and pine cones and changed the oil in two lawn mowers and my weedeater. This morning I picked up more sticks and pine cones which fell in the wind last night. I trimmed and mowed, planted a few plants to replace some I killed with herbicide, I dug my fire pit out some more, watered plants, all this while swatting gnats and sweating like...ran the boat motor to keep it charged and ready, listening to more thunder and there were already some more sticks and pine cones down from an earlier storm which had a lot of wind and three drops of rain.

While I was working in the yard a song or at least part of it got stuck in my head. It is a country song and frankly I am not a big country music fan but there have been some really good super groups like Alabama, of course Waylon and Willie and the boys, you get the idea...Country music imitates life in an amazing way. The guy who penned the words "the girls all get prettier at closing time" has been in a bar late at night.

The particular song today is a Diamond Rio song and it talks about a pine tree. If you have been to my lake house you know i have some PINE TREES. Old, big, productive, pine trees.

Boom there goes the thunder and soon the pines will be pruning themselves and dropping pine cones faster than a herd of squirrels at feeding time.

The lyrics of the chorus of the song are,"I'd start walking your way, You'd start walking mine, We'd meet in the middle, 'Neath that old Georgia Pine...We'd gain a lot of ground, 'Cause we'd both give a little, There ain't no road too long, When we meet in the middle."

That is a life lesson put to music. Thanks to those big and I do mean BIG old aggravating Georgia Pines.

This afternoon and tonight I have been doing dusting, cleaning, vacuuming, mopping, but no gnats. Woohoo.

Tomorrow it is our yard in town and then pack to go to celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday in South Alabama. We are leaving after work because little boys travel well at night.

July 24, 2009, What Will the Peanut Crop Be?

2009-07-24T13:35:00.016-04:00

I spent some time this morning with my video camera and digital camera on a 40 mile trek through Crisp, Turner, and Tift Counties. I think this is at least a snapshot of the condition of the Georgia Peanut Crop this year at this time. Last week I was through the Southwest corner of the state and earlier in the week through Dougherty and Worth Counties and I am seeing a lot of this everywhere. I am hearing much the same as what you will see in these pictures from farmers across the state. I think the farmers who may be in the best shape in the end will be in one of two categories, either the guys who contracted but have a superior handle on cost of production or the average and above producer who did not contract peanuts. Save a miracle I personally have to believe that prices have to move upward once the 2008 surplus is out of the loan. USDA reduced the repayment rate significantly this week and this should help the situation a lot. I had the opportunity to visit with Scott Sanford after his presentation at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference and I am well convinced that his heart is for the farmers and he wants to find a way to make this program work for them.

Click here to view the video on crop progress.

Here are a few pictures:

Strip tilled in a cotton/corn field with a skip by the yellow bucket.

Same field but looks good just very late. Good farmer with good weed control.

Planted at more normal planting date but weedy and still not lapping the middles.

This field was planted partially and then a delay and the rest planted. Drown outs, skips, kind of the rule.

Same field...note the lack of uniformity in the field and these rows were planted at the same time. Also look at how late we are.

Same field, skips, variation, just a tough situation right now.

A clean field but notice even the best producers have skips and drown outs and especially a late crop to contend with. I have to wonder if we could measure the skips and down outs what that would further reduce acres in Georgia.

This is a late planted soybean field but pretty clean and demonstrates how when the planting season passed peanuts by farmers shifted to beans because the risk was less and the perceived reward greater. Plus they have Roundup Ready Technology.

A more mature, early planted soybean field. You can see the weeds are a bit more of a problem here as they are in all of our crops this year it seems.

This part of this peanut field drowned out and had to be re-planted. Notice he dropped in the middle of the row on part of it. How will he decide what to do at harvest on those 8 rows? Uniformity is a big issue in a lot of fields this year.

This is how peanuts should look in late July. What a beautiful field of peanuts but this is far and away the exception rather than the rule in Georgia this year. The weather has not been terribly kind to us. It is amazing what the combination of rain and irrigation can do. I truly believe we are less than 40% irrigated in peanuts this year.

Southern Peanut Growers Conference

2009-07-16T08:54:00.004-04:00

The Southern Peanut Growers Conference for this year is now history. It was a great program with speakers from government and industry.

The government speakers ran a bit long but the researchers in the next session got us back on track and still did a great job with their presentations. I think next year we will discuss a bit more time for the research update. I loved the frankness of our researchers as they talked to growers about things like resistant pigweed and disease and nematode. One thing is for certain you cannot afford to cut corners and still remain profitable. It was also nice to see our soil fertility guy speaking on calcium. There is a lot new there and so we needed the update.

Our industry speakers also covered a lot of ground. It was nice to see how the salmonella outbreak was handled successfully, to hear about the great news on nutrition and childhood obesity, to see the promotional efforts currently underway, to learn more about government programs and food aid efforts in other countries.

The entertainment on Sunday and Tuesday was great and everyone had a good time. And the food....it was magnificent. That is not always the case for large group functions but the Executive Chef at Edgewater is a master at his occupation and loves doing it, too.

The prayer breakfast was one of the best we ever had and the message was one of music and not of words. Gina Lawhon is a master on even a cheesy electronic keyboard with a silly grand piano facade. I must have had 30 folks tell me how great the program was and how she inspired them. God truly is good.

One announcement came out of the final general session...the Peanut Advisory Board has a brand new name to reflect the grower ownership and to more closely compliment its relationship to the sister group the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation. PAB is now "Southern Peanut Growers" and is presenting the flavor standard of the world, southeastern grown runner peanuts.

I really appreciate all of our sponsors and we were especially happy to add a new sponsor this year with the National Peanut Board. Their participation was a nice addition to our conference.

If you weren't there you missed a great meeting at a great location.

Southern Peanut Growers Conference

2009-07-07T08:43:00.003-04:00

The Southern Peanut Growers Conference starts this Sunday in Panama City Beach. We have a great program lined up and a lot of fun things, too. Beach, golf, a redfish seminar, and great entertainment Sunday and Tuesday nights.

I am also excited about the prayer breakfast and the inspiration which Gina Lawhon will provide for us as she shares her gift of her musical talent on the Grand Piano.

We have sessions on activities in Washington, cutting edge research, government feeding programs and feeding the hungry, promotion of peanuts, and a premier panel of experts who will tell us how to use the media to tell our story.

There is still time to register.

Government Feeding Programs

2009-06-26T11:25:00.003-04:00

I made a day trip to Washington yesterday to meet with the folks in USDA who are in charge of buying and distributing commodities to a host of government feeding programs. It was a long hard trip...I was on the road at 4:30 AM and got back about midnight. That said it was well worth the trip.

Government purchases peaked in 1992-93 when Charles Hatcher, Congressman from Georgia"s second congressional district, was Chairman of the House Ag Subcommittee which oversaw these programs.

We had a very cordial and informative meeting. We stressed the value of peanut butter in feeding programs. We are really cheap when you consider the protein value. We are also a food which is good and good for you.

The folks we met with had some pretty solid suggestions as to how we can get government purchases increased. The system is a bottom up system with requests for peanut butter starting locally.

I really think if we do some pretty serious promotion in this area may have some of the greatest potential for consumption increases of anything we can do. We are talking a lot of money and a lot of pounds of peanuts if we are successful.

American Peanut Congress

2009-06-22T19:49:00.002-04:00

Well a lot has happened already and tomorrow is another day of meetings.

Yesterday we had a meeting of the committee which is working to try to enhance government purchases. There is a lot of activity all throughout the peanut industry and I will be going to Washington on Thursday to meet with the folks at USDA who purchase and distribute commodities and foodstuffs.

we can make a solid case that we have a lot to offer in nutritional value and that peanuts should not be ignored. This would be a good year with the surplus from last year's crop to increase government purchases of peanut butter and any other products which fit the needs of the government feeding programs.

Today the program included a lot of speakers in the area of food safety. It may have been the most prestigious slate of speakers I have ever seen at this meeting. They all have re-enforced my belief that the PCA scare will change food safety regulations for all of us. I include farmers in this but the thing we have to do is make sure that any issues which impact farmers are based on science and are not overly burdensome or costly.

This morning most of the peanut brokers hosted a prayer breakfast. As I looked around the room at our hosts I have to say that it was a pleasure to see true family men who love God. One of their own was the speaker this year. Ron Wolff did an excellent job of reminding us that in all things we can be thankful because God is on control. He was a fantastic speaker and it was a really wonderful way to start the day.

Tomorrow we will have speakers discussing nutrition and use of penauts in feeding programs. I am looking forward to that as a refresher for the meeting Thursday.

Crop Condition

2009-06-20T13:30:00.002-04:00

I am amazed at how much land is not yet planted, especially behind wheat. Also, I have seen a lot of drowned out areas where they have just replanted. I wonder did they change what they planted the second time. And if you have cotton you about have to replant with cotton to recoup the tech fees so that is a bit more clear.

All I can say is we need a miracle this year if we ever had one.

I have always heard, be careful what you ask for because you might get it. Maybe the miracle is in the works to fix the ills of a glutted market. You only have to have half as many at $700 to make the same you made with twice as much and $355. Unless the crop starts to look amazingly better I would not contract my production this year.

There is some anticipation that we may forfeit 200,000 tons of '08 crop to the government. If they would send it to the food banks or oil mill that would be the best thing that could happen because it would add some serious market dynamics to our situation.

I hope we all enjoy a roller coaster ride because we have one this year.

Budget Discussions

2009-06-16T22:46:00.002-04:00

Budget discussions with my board have confirmed a lot of what I thought. Much of the 09 crop is either in trouble or non-existent.

The peanut industry is in for a real roller coaster ride. Acres are likely down more than the intentions suggested and the condition of the crop which is planted has a lot of problems. Drowned out low spots, skippy stands, and very late.

If you want to buy peanuts cheap in the Fall you better book now. We have a lot of potential to be hammered with TSWV in many areas. Also, the earliest planted peanuts started out with some weak seedlings and the roots stayed shallow for a while with all the rain.

Another complicating factor for the future is the increase in soybean acreage. The other day I was riding by a field on a country road and thought it was twin row peanuts in wheat until I was told different. The farmer told me he is doing soybeans that way and he is getting a yield response and his cost on soybeans is a lot less.

For peanuts in terms of rotation a Soybean is a peanut. So we cannot push acres up significantly in some areas because we need our other two rotation crop years at the least.

We are a long way from harvest and no crystal ball is perfect but I will say this year is starting out really in a bad place and it will take a miracle to come back totally from today's situation.

I guess USDA was right to hold the price high and they will look really smart at the end of the day if we have a disaster. They just have to hold them until Fall to capitalize on the disaster if it carries forward.

Oh well, prices should be a lot better next year at planting time.

Screen on the Green

2009-06-12T16:14:00.009-04:00

We did our first of two Screen on the Green promotions last night in Atlanta. Peachtree TV puts up a big screen at Centennial Park and shows classic movies. Last night's movie was "Field of Dreams." It is a really great family movie and we made sure everyone who wanted them had peanuts for the movie. I was a bit surprised at the folks who also took recipe cards but they are easy to tuck away and go better than brochures.

I was a bit concerned when I pulled up to the park to unload the peanut plants and I was in the midst of a severe thunderstorm which included some small hail. It passed and they went on with the event. I was worried if it would impact the crowd but don't really think it did. There had to be close to 8000 people there.

The commercial they played at the beginning of the movie was the spot we have with farmer, Gene Roney in it. I really like that spot and it was well timed on the heels of the first quarter of this year. I had several questions about how we had been impacted but no one who seemed concerned and not a soul asked me if the peanuts I was handing out were safe to eat.

This is a promotion we do with Alabama, Florida, and the National Peanut Board and it really works well because it is all farmer and staff manning the exhibit and going through the crowd passing out peanuts.

An Uncertain Crop

2009-05-29T17:51:00.002-04:00

I made a meandering trip to Dothan and back yesterday and today and I can tell you if you are a farmer with corn right now you are really happy you chose to plant corn. It looks absolutely beautiful after the cooler than normal and wetter than normal weather.

I also noticed more acres of soybeans this year than in any recent year since the decline of the 80's. Soybeans may be becoming the new peanut. They take up space in a peanut rotation so a farmer who plants an acre of soybeans and chooses to stay on a three year rotation will have had that acre out of peanuts for six years. A four year rotation means eight years. I was talking to one farmer who will get over $9.50 for his beans and they will pick them up in the field. If you consider the cost of soy versus peanut and the risk is sure a lot less on an acre of soybeans. A ton of soybeans is 33.33 bushels or $316.67 per ton. Managed properly growers under similar management could anticipate two ton soybeans compared to two ton peanuts. All with less cost. The question is how much less?

It used to be that the shellers had to determine the cotton to peanut price relationship but now soybeans add a new variable and a more interesting complication with the rotation.

Now, for peanut conditions. Where they are not drowned out peanuts as a rule look OK. Not fantastic, just OK. I am really concerned that we are not developing any depth to the root system based on the excessive rainfall. I am also concerned that seedling disease pressures have been pretty heavy and what will poor emergence, weakened seedlings, and the drowned out skips do to the pressure from TSWV. It has been very light for the past couple of years and we could really get hammered if we don't watch it. Also, half of the crop is not yet planted and the crop insurance deadline is Sunday.

All this said it is going to be another year of challenges for the peanut industry and for farmers in general.

Crop Insureance Deadline

2009-05-27T15:28:00.003-04:00

We are working to try to get the planting deadline for crop insurance extended by ten days based on the daily rainfall and the lagging crop progress.

University recommendations don't show any adverse planting response until at least after June 10.

Rainy Days

2009-05-27T09:22:00.002-04:00

We are in a pretty critical situation right now at what should be the peak of planting season. We are getting rain every day and that is not good. The ground is saturated and field work is at a standstill. I usually never fuss about rain but I am getting very concerned.

We have about two and a half weeks left for peanut planting within the planting window. The crop insurance deadline is even closer, though we are asking for an extension of ten days on the deadline.

Sun is forecast finally for the weekend and early next week but we need some time to dry out a bit. Fieldwork won't start in all locations the minute the sun comes out. Those who do rush tot he field I hope they have a strong and long chain.

I am also concerned that if we end up drying off too much we don't have a really strong root system so drought at pod set could be devastating. We need the crop planted and up, then a little stress to get the roots deep and then rain every week at pod set. I don't want much do I?

Secretary Vilsack

2009-05-19T08:47:00.003-04:00

Secretary Vilsack was in Ludowici, GA yesterday holding a listening session.

The room was packed and a lot of issues were surfaced. Three were peanut issues. The first was increasing government purchases of peanut butter brought up by Armond Morris who serves on an industry committee to enhance government purchases of peanut butter and peanuts. Secretary Vilsack encouraged farmers to contact their local school systems to get them to increase orders and that USDA would follow suit to supply all the orders. He said the system is driven at the local level.

The second issue was the $500,000 gross farm sales cap to participate in government farm programs. Allen Whitehead brought this up and explained that he and his brother were not large farmers and not wealthy but that the cap would disallow them from participating. The Secretary said that this was an issue that would have to be studied further and that perhaps it needs to be an adjusted gross income number. Allen pointed out that southern farms have higher cost higher valued commodities than our Midwestern counterparts.

Joe Boddiford brought up the issue of the posted price. The issue brought the most defensive position form the Secretary, stating that reducing the posted price would benefit shellers but not growers because of the nature of the way peanuts are marketed under options contracts. This is an area where we have more education to do. If a cotton miller has a call option and the market goes down he benefits also. We have to find a way to more adequately define market price. Farmers are being hurt right now because there is a surplus which cannot clear out so prices are depressed. The posted price was always to be set at market clearing prices. Watch out for the train wreck in July and August...it has a great likelihood of happening.

Non peanut issues were raised by organic producers, by a poultry grower from Coffee County who like all his neighbors has lost their integrator and have chicken houses with mortgages and no chickens in them to pay the bills. If you don't feel for those farmers you should. They have a real problem and need some help in a really bad kind of way. Also, the issue of animal identification surfaces and other general discussion on things like energy.

A Million Thanks

2009-05-11T09:04:00.003-04:00

I went to the local WalMart Friday to buy my peanut butter for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive and was excited to see no 18 ounce jars of Jif or Peter Pan and the Skippy and Reese's were almost gone.

Sounds like the response locally was phenomenal.

Also, KMC took over 320 jars of peanut butter to the local post office Friday. They contacted their dealers and suppliers to also participate. What a great response we got to this.

Stamp Out Hunger is Rolling

2009-05-07T15:51:00.004-04:00

I was just speaking with Lanier Carson from KMC who makes farm equipment and he told me they are matching their employees jar for jar on peanut butter for the Stamp Out Hunger campaign and they will be taking it to the post office to drop it off.

The word is spreading all over.

Monica Pearson with Georgia's largest TV station, WSB, responded to my email and has sent out her plea for folks to buy peanut butter and she sent it to the assignment desk to consider as a story.

Shelly in Texas is running with this, too. Man what a great effort.

Don't Forget the Peanut Butter ... Spread the Word

2009-05-07T08:54:00.002-04:00

Want to do something to help a peanut farmer then spread the word ...Hang a jar or even two or more of peanut butter on the mailbox on Saturday for the "Stamp Out Hunger" campaign the post office does every year. It is the nation's largest food drive. Tell all your friends to do the same.

Peanut butter is a great source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and the fat is highly mono-unsaturated which is the heart healthy fat. A peanut butter and Jelly sandwich and a glass of milk is a perfect meal.

Peanut butter comes in many shapes and forms. There is creamy and crunchy, honey roast, single serve packs, all available in the super market. To me there is not much better than a peanut butter sucker. Just dip the spoon in the jar and lick it off like a lollipop.

May is Time to Plant

2009-05-06T14:31:00.002-04:00

Well May is upon us and time to plant peanuts.

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus stopped us from planting many peanuts in April, though the 20th of April used to be considered the optimum day to plant peanuts. Some of our new varieties may allow us to move back to somewhat earlier planting dates to help spread and manage weather risk.

I never cease to be amazed at what I hear form farmers. This year within ten minutes of each other on in two phone conversations, one farmer told me how much he hated Georgia Green and another told me they were his best peanuts last year and yielded right at 5000 pounds. I suppose it is true, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

23 years ago when I came to the Commission there were two runner peanut varieties...now we have more than 15. That is not all which has changed. Peanut combines were all two row pull type units, there was a marketing quota, and no trade agreements. I have to believe a lot of the change is interrelated.

By the way be sure to buy a jar of peanut butter and hang it on your mailbox this Saturday. Mail carriers are once again holding the largest food drive in the US.