SPFF News & Resources

Getting off to a great start here at the 15th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference I met up with all four of the state executives for the associations involved in the event as soon as I arrived on the scene at Panama City Beach.

Left to right, the fabulous four are Randy Griggs with Alabama Peanut Producers; Ken Barton with Florida Peanut Producers; Don Koehler with Georgia Peanut Commission; and Malcolm Broome of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association.

As usual, I asked each of them to talk about the condition of the crop in their states and what the biggest concerns of the growers are right now. Randy says the Alabama crop is “wet, wet, wet” right now. In Florida, Ken says the state is pretty much a “mixed bag” with “an excellent crop in half the state and a questionable crop in the other half.” Don reports that the Georgia crop is “like a Clint Eastwood movie – the good, the bad and the ugly.” Finally, Mississippi is a little wet in the traditional southern peanut growing area of the state “but the northwest corner of the state, which is a new area, is extremely dry,” according to Malcolm.

Meanwhile, all farmers are waiting to see when and if they will finally get a farm bill this year, which we will be hearing more about on Saturday here at the conference. The theme for the 15th annual event is Making Sustainability Work, an issue which is important to all the growers as well.

Randy and Don have been a part of the SPGC since the beginning in 1999. “We started out with about 3 or 4 sponsors and the first year we had about 250 people,” said Randy. “We’ve seen it just constantly grow ever since.”

Listen to my interview with the fab four: Southern Peanut Grower State Execs (MP3)

2013 SPGC Photo Album

Peanut families were loving the peanut belts, photo frames, wallets and flip flops on sale at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, thanks to the efforts of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

“Through the years, the Georgia Peanut Commission has seen the farmers that really love the cotton belts, so we checked out the company that makes those and was able to work out a peanut belt,” said newlywed Joy Carter-Crosby with the GPC. “We actually introduced the products in January at our Georgia Peanut Farm Show and since then it’s just taken off.”

Joy says the next step is to offer the peanut-branded items on-line at the gapeanuts.com website.

Listen to my interview with Joy:
Joy Carter-Crosby (MP3)

Check out the SPGC photo album

Agriculture is fighting a constant battle to stay one step ahead of proposed regulations that keep making raising food more challenging.

During the Saturday general session on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Washington, American Farm Bureau Director of Environment and Energy Policy Paul Schlegel talked with peanut growers about the ever growing crop of ugly government regulations. “Chief among the things we care about at the moment are a pending permit program EPA’s implementing that relates to pesticide applications,” said Paul, noting they have language in the House farm bill addressing that issue. Also of concern is EPA expansion of waters they can regulate, Atrazine, immigration, and agricultural dust regulations.

Schlegel says Farm Bureau is pleased with the transportation bill recently passed by Congress that basically contained everything agriculture wanted. “That was a big win for us,” he said.

Listen to my interview with Paul:
Paul Schlegel, AFBF (MP3)

Check out the SPGC photo album

Each year at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, the University of Georgia Peanut Team recognizes high yielding growers in the state with the Georgia Peanut Achievement Awards, sponsored by BASF and Syngenta.

This year’s overall high yield award for the state went to John Gaines and Ricky Dowdy of Baker County with 7267 pounds per acre on 304 acres, which he says he accomplished with good rotation, a good spraying program and good land. “The Georgia extension agents greatly help,” John said. “They do research that we can use and that helps us a heap.”

Listen to my interview with John here: John Gaines (MP3)

Jason Tyrone and Brian Corbet of Tycor Farms in Lake Park were high yield winners for 2011, the first year they ever grew peanuts, with 4984 pounds per acre on 709 acres. Jason says they normally grow vegetables on the operation but decided to go with a different rotation last year. “We still grew some vegetables, but we had some land we needed to do something with and we picked peanuts,” he said. They were surprised by their high yield and they are growing peanuts again this year.

Listen to my interview with Jason here: Jason Tyrone (MP3)

UGA Extension peanut agronomist Dr. John Beasley, pictured here at the conference with his wife and daughter, says this was their 50th consecutive year of recognizing the highest yields in the state.

“It’s a great honor to recognize these great farm families,” he said. “We just try to help the county agents help these growers. We learn from them and a lot of growers try to emulate what they do.”

Listen to my interview with Dr. Beasley here: Dr. John Beasley (MP3)

Check out the SPGC photo album

We already heard from Don Koehler about the conference and what is going on with the Georgia Peanut Commission, now we’ll hear from the other three states that are a part of the Southern Peanut Growers.

Alabama Peanut Producers Executive Director Randy Griggs is very pleased with this year’s record attendance and sponsors, as well as a fantastic program. “It shows support for the future of peanuts in the southeast,” he said. “It also shows that we’ve become the premier conference as far as the peanut industry is concerned.”

Randy says the crop looks good in Alabama. “We’re off to one of the best starts than we’ve had in 3-4 years,” he said. “After last year everybody wants a good crop but it hasn’t been made yet. We’re cautiously optimistic.”

Listen to my interview with Randy here: Randy Griggs, Alabama (MP3)

Our hosts for the conference each year in Panama City Beach are the Florida Peanut Producers, and executive director Ken Barton says their crop is also looking good. “We’re well underway in the panhandle and north Florida, actually a little head of schedule,” Ken said. “In the southern part of our growing region, they’ll actually begin harvesting in just a few weeks.” The southern part of the region is in central Florida.

Ken says they did have some issues in upper central Florida with the significant rainfall from the tropical storm that went through a few weeks ago that is causing some disease pressure, but all in all “a 180 degree turn from this time last year.”

Listen to my interview with Ken here: Ken Barton, Florida (MP3)

Last, but certainly not least, Malcolm Broome with the Mississippi Peanut Growers says they have been very happy to be part of the SPGC for the last three of the conference’s 14 years. “We’ve had a good turnout and good comments on the program,” Malcolm said, noting that his growers really like being able to network with producers from other states.

Mississippi has increased peanut acreage from 15,000 to 50,000 in the last couple of years and this year’s crop looks good.

Listen to my interview with Malcolm here: Malcolm Broome, Mississippi (MP3)

Check out the SPGC photo album