SPFF News & Resources

Everyone in the peanut industry likely knows Dr. Stanley Fletcher, a professor of policy at the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. For almost 25 years, Dr. Fletcher’s job has been to analyze the costs of peanut production concerning yields and grade and evaluate the profitability of various production operations.

In order to do that, he finds representative farms in peanut states to get good, sound information about really what is happening on the ground on the farm. Four of those farmers came together on a panel with Dr. Fletcher during the Southern Peanut Growers Conference to talk about the experience. Listen to their conversation below.

Rep Farm Panel:
Carl Sanders, Alabama
Ken Barton, Florida
Tim McMillan, Georgia
Dan Ward, North Carolina (by video)

Dr. Fletcher and Rep Farm Panel 39:17

2024 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

Scott Monfort, UGA and
Kris Balkcom, Auburn

“Looking here at Alabama, we had increased about 7 to 10% over the year before. Georgia is up 10% and Florida is up 6% as well. Mississippi is up 25%. And you can see overall here we’re looking at 1.75 million acres,” said Balkcom during a presentation at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. “It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen a number that high on the US peanut acreage as a whole that gives us about an 8% increase in acreage over last year.”

As for the condition of the crop, UGA’s Scott Monfort took a look at a variety of different scenarios for the remainder of the season and hopes it will be a good year in the final analysis.

“If we have 1.2 million acres in a poor weather scenario, and this is based on historical yields where we think we’ve dropped off in bad years, 2.254 million tons in the Southeast,” said Monfort. “If we have a pretty good moderate average year 2.439, but if we have a good year, we could be as much as 2.6 million. So it’s a pretty doggone good range. I think right now we’re looking pretty good even though we got problems, fighting worms and disease.”

SPGC24 Kris Balkcom, Auburn University 9:30

SPGC24 Scott Monfort, University of Georgia 10:34

2024 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

Peanuts and chickens go together in the South like peanut butter and jelly, so feeding peanuts to chickens could be a win-win.

Dr. Ondulla Toomer, with the USDA-ARS Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit, has found in her research that feeding high-oleic peanuts to meat-type broiler chickens enhances the fatty acid profile of the meat produced.

“Peanuts can be utilized to enhance poultry and egg production to produce premium quality enriched eggs and poultry meat,” said Dr. Toomer in a brief interview after her presentation at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. “This could mean some expanded market utilization for peanuts.”

SPGC24 Dr. Toomer, USDA-ARS 1:37

2024 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

It was four years ago that the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation, the American Peanut Shellers Association and the National Peanut Buying Points Association joined together to create the United States Peanut Federation, which is piloted by long-time peanut industry lobbyist Bob Redding.

Besides the farm bill, Redding talked about the need to increase exports. “Whether Republicans or Democrats control the White House next January, we’re likely to see increased tariffs, particularly with China. This will be impactful to a number of commodities, either directly or indirectly with peanut, so we might as well face that and brace up for it,” he said. “We worked really hard with the US Peanut Federation to build relationships both in the House and Senate with senior members who are involved in trade policy and we have to increase our export efforts with regard to peanuts.”

In his expectations for a farm bill at this point, Redding said, “We will likely see a farm bill action will be after the election in lame duck session and we’re hopeful the final bill will be similar to the House bill.”

Bob Redding, peanut policy update 35:25

2024 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

This is the first year the Southern Peanut Growers Conference has ever been held in Savannah, home to the Port of Savannah, the single largest and fastest-growing container terminal in America and a very important step on the journey of U.S. peanut exports.

“The port of Savannah is the largest gateway for peanut exports in the United States, over 34% of all peanut exports moved via our gateway here in Savannah,” said David Porter with the Georgia Ports Authority who spoke at the conference.

Porter said they are focused on improvements to make shipping easier for their customers and continue their growth. “Imports account for more than 60 percent of our volume so we want to move that import freight closer to market and what that means for you as exporters is we’re putting empty equipment closer to your farms,” said Porter. “That’s going to allow your your truckers to have much quicker turn times.”

David Porter, Georgia Ports Authority 18:41

2024 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

L-R: Shannon Nixon; Kevin and Drew Monahan; Milton and Drew Parrish; Jesse Dyck

This year’s class of Peanut Efficiency Award Winners by region are:
Delta States: Drew and Milton Parrish, Lexington, MS
Lower Southeast States: Shannon Nixon, Baker, FL
Southwest States: Jesse Dyck, Denver City, TX
Upper Southeast States: Springhill Farms Parthership, Waverly, VA

As usual, the farmers fielded questions on a panel moderated by Dr. Marshall Lamb.
Award winners panel with Dr. Lamb 27:14

Listen to comments from Parrish and Nixon.
Shannon Nixon, Baker, FL 3:08
Drew Parrish, Lexington, MS 1:15

2024 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album