SPFF News & Resources

Jimmy Lee has been a fixture at peanut events around the southeast for many moons, as the former host of the Georgia Farm Monitor radio and TV shows, and since his second retirement about four years ago he continues visiting his friends in the peanut industry to do video.

Jimmy celebrated 50 years in broadcasting in June, 2005 and was inducted into the Georgia Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2006. “I’ve met a lot of people and done a lot of interviews,” Jimmy told me. “We counted up at one point and we were about 50,000 interviews in all that time.” Among those interviews were three U.S. presidents and the Duke himself, John Wayne. From 1985-1997 he produced and hosted a weekly half-hour television program and a daily radio program for the Georgia Peanut Commission.

Jimmy says he’s stopped having birthdays and “doesn’t recommend” retirement, but he still stays busy and has a lot of fun.

Listen to my interview with Jimmy here: Jimmy Lee (MP3)

A colorful and entertaining childrens’ book about the history of “one of our most beloved yet least understood crops” was included in the registration bags for participants at the 2011 SPGC, not for us to keep but to giveaway. The book is called “The Life and Times of the Peanut” by Charles Micucci.

“One of our speakers talked about the need for farmers to promote their own image and their own product,” said Randy Griggs, executive director of the Alabama Peanut Producers Association. “And we included this book to reiterate what she said and we asked every participant to take that book back and donate it to a school, or church, or public library.”

Randy says the Alabama peanut producers discovered the book by chance and bought up every copy the publisher had to donate to schools and use for the state’s Ag in the Classroom program, but there are still some copies still to be found on-line! The author also has other agriculture-themed books, including “The Life and Times of Corn” and “The Life and Times of the Honeybee.”

Find out more about the book in my interview with Randy below.

Randy Griggs (MP3)

Pending negotiations for the next Farm Bill dominated the discussion during the last general session at the SPGC on Saturday which focused on Challenges for Agriculture.

Congressman Stephen Fincher (R-TN) of the freshman class in the House of Representatives for 2010 would like to see the next Farm Bill delayed until after the 2012 election. “We’ve got to make sure as we approach writing a new Farm Bill that we’re very level-headed,” he said. “Farmers understand that we’ve all got to tighten our belts a little bit, but we can’t kid ourselves and think that we can balance the budget on the back of one percent of the budget, which is what ag gets.”

Fincher is a real minority in Congress as a 7th generation cotton farmer but he is proud to be able to represent agriculture and help to educate his colleagues about the importance of the industry. Listen to my interview with Rep. Fincher below:

Congressman Stephen Fincher (MP3)

Mary Kay Thatcher with the American Farm Bureau Federation is a veteran when it comes to farm bills, having been through the process six times before, and she thinks we may actually see two new Farm Bills if the debt ceiling negotiations mean the kind of cuts they are considering for agriculture. “We’re unfortunately going to take a pretty fair amount of cuts this year, probably in the range of $30-40 billion out of the commodity and conservation titles,” she said. “If indeed we lose that much money, it will sort of require us to write a farm bill in the next couple of weeks, and then to write it next year for re-evaluating what we have left and looking the other titles.”

Listen to my interview with Mary Kay here: Mary Kay Thatcher, AFBF (MP3)

Bob Redding, who represents the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation in Washington DC, says there has never been a more important time for farmers to have their voices heard in the nation’s capitol.

“Farmers need to keep up with what’s going on, let their congressmen and senators know exactly how they feel and what they would like to see in a farm bill,” Bob says.

Listen to my interview with Bob here: Bob Redding (MP3)

13th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

This is the fourth year that we have brought the Southern Peanut Growers Conference to the world through the SPGC blog, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Ag Technologies and Trimble.

I talked with someone new this year – Robbie Tabb of Ag Technologies, pictured here on the far right with the rest of the crew that attended the conference. Robbie says they love coming to the conference and talking to peanut farmers about how they can help them be more efficient. “The southern peanut grower can stand to increase yield by 300-400 pounds per acre simply by having GPS,” he told me. “That’s why we’ve grown so much in the southeast is because of our peanut growers. They’ve really seen an increase in profitability just by having the guidance on the tractor.”

Robbie says they are happy to sponsor the conference blog each year to reach even growers who may not be able to attend the meeting. “The more people we can reach, the better,” he says.

Robbie Tabb, Ag Technologies (MP3)

The National Peanut Board is always a part of the Southern Peanut Growers Conference to keep producers updated on how their dollars are being spent for research and promotion.

NPB sponsors the Saturday morning Peanut Profitability Awards breakfast, where chairman George Jeffcoat of Alabama provided information on the latest projects. Later, I caught up with Ryan Lepicier, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for NPB, for an interview about what’s new.

Ryan says they have a new ad campaign stressing the nutrition of peanuts. “The ads focus on the fact that peanuts have more protein than any nut, peanuts are a nutrient rich food, and peanuts have more anti-oxidants than broccoli, carrots, or green tea,” he said. That certainly surprised me!

Listen to my interview with Ryan below.

Ryan Lepicier, NPB (MP3)

13th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

Farm financial planning is just one of those tasks that many farmers want to put off as long as they can – indefinitely, if possible – but Dr. Marshall Lamb with the National Peanut Research Lab says it’s just as important as farming itself.

The major emphasis of his talk was on working with the current volatile price situation for farm commodities. “The price for cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans are at all-time, unprecedented levels,” he said, noting that even peanuts are experiencing price volatility.

“The best way to cope with it is to know from your farm plan where your break-even prices are and when you reach those break-evens, go ahead and contract something,” Marshall said. “A farmer never went broke making a profit.”

Listen to my interview with Marshall here:
Dr. Marshall Lamb (MP3)

13th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album

As they have done since the inception of the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, Farm Press Publications presented their annual Peanut Profitability Awards at the SPGC Saturday morning breakfast. Pictured here is Farm Press publisher Greg Frey with this year’s winners – Vic Swinson of North Carolina for the Upper Southeast Region, Cornelius Enns of Texas for the Southwest Region, and Kreg Freeman of Georgia for the Southeast.

Kreg was also the statewide winner in the Georgia Achievement Club this year for the 100-300 acre category with a yield of 6626 pounds per acre. He attributes a good part of his increase in profitability and yields to precision technology, as much as 500 pounds per acre. “We use GPS and auto steer tractors,” he told me. “What I got paid for the auto steer part of the tractor in one year.”

Listen to my interview with Kreg here: Kreg Freeman Interview (MP3)

If there is one thing all three of these gentlemen have in common, it is humility. They were all clearly uncomfortable at taking credit alone for their achievements, since farming is always a team effort! Listen to my very brief interviews with Vic and Cornelius by clicking on the links below.

Vic Swinson Interview (MP3)

Cornelius Enns Interview (MP3)

13th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album