The winners of the 2014 Farm Press Peanut Profitability Awards once again included some amazing farmers who make up the best of the best. This year’s honorees, pictured here in the front row, are: Upper Southeast Region — Billy Bain, Dinwiddie, Va. Southwest Region — Isaac, John and George Guenther, Gaines County, Texas Lower Southeast Region — Owen Yoder, Orrville, … Read More
Serious Thoughts from a Funny Guy
Damian Mason is a seriously funny guy. Known as “Agriculture’s Professional Funny Man,” Damian combines his sharp wit and intelligent humor with the two topics he knows best: agriculture and business. “I’m a farm boy and a farm owner, I have an agricultural economics degree, raised on a dairy farm,” he said in an interview after his luncheon presentation at … Read More
Some New SPGC Sponsors
The Southern Peanut Growers Conference had a record crowd this year at nearly 700 and a record number of sponsors. Among the new sponsors this year were the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC) and Farm Credit of Florida and Northwest Florida. Bill Moore with Conger LP Gas in Tifton, Georgia was representing PERC with a display featuring one of … Read More
Perfectly Powerful Peanut Packs Punch
Move over Incredible Edible Egg and Other White Meat, there’s a new brand in town and it’s packing a powerful punch. The National Peanut Board (NPB) is very excited about the new “Perfectly Powerful Peanut” brand that seems just, well – perfect. “We evaluated what we needed to do with our brand platform for peanuts and decided we needed something … Read More
Arkansas Congressman at SPGC
In keeping with a fine tradition of bringing outstanding farm state lawmakers to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, this year we were honored to hear from Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Crawford talked about the struggles in getting a farm bill finally passed this year and his belief that it should be called … Read More
Market Trends – Numbers and China
The first general session at the 2014 Southern Peanut Growers Conference took a long term look at peanut markets and one word was mentioned by all the speakers – China. George Lovatt with Lovatt and Rushing peanut brokerage company talked numbers, the most important of which for farmers are prices – which are down – and acreage, which is up. … Read More
Updates from Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi
Every year we get an update from the executive directors of each of the state peanut organizations involved in the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. We already heard from Florida, so here are the rest of the group. The Alabama Peanut Producers Association is under new management this year, as Randy Griggs retired at the end of last year after leading … Read More
Randy Griggs Gets Valor Award
The recently semi-retired executive director of the Alabama Peanut Producers was surprised to be honored with the annual Valent Valor Award at the kick off of the 16th annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference in Panama City Beach. “I like to know what’s going on and all the details and this is something I sort of missed,” said Randy after receiving … Read More
Peanut Growers Welcome to Florida
The sun is shining and Panama City Beach is beautiful as peanut growers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi are arriving today for the 16th annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference. A record number of attendees are expected at this conference that just keeps getting better every year. Florida Peanut Growers Association executive director Ken Barton says it’s a pleasure to … Read More
Sustaining Farm Policy for Peanuts
A policy update on the farm bill, or lack of one, was given by Congressman Mike Conaway (R-TX) and peanut industry lobbyist Bob Redding (left) during the final session of the 2013 SPGC. Rep. Conaway, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, says there has been no shortage of controversy in this farm bill. “Convention wisdom was that you needed … Read More