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 … Read More
Thanks to Blog Sponsors Ag Technologies and Trimble
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. … Read More
National Peanut Board at SPGC
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 … Read More
Farm Planning and Financing
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 … Read More
New Sponsors for 2011 SPGC
This year’s Southern Peanut Growers Conference had several new supporting sponsors, including AgLeader Technology and DuPont. With the use of precision technology becoming more prevalent among peanut growers, AgLeader’s Russ Morman (left) says being at the conference has been good for two reasons. “Number one, it’s certainly helped to educate us as to where the peanut industry is going and … Read More
Bayer Belt Registered for Peanuts
Bayer Crop Science is a major sponsor of the Southern Peanut Growers Conference each year and a big supporter of the industry, so they were pleased to be offering peanut growers a new insecticide this year. “This year we launched Belt in peanuts,” said John Hand with Bayer. “We’ve had this product labeled in several other crops previously – cotton … Read More
Peanut Profitability Awards
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 … Read More
Ask the Experts Panel
A panel of experts from around the southeastern peanut growing region entertained questions from growers on a variety of topics during the SPGC on Friday. Those experts included, in no particular order: Jay Chapin – Clemson University, David Adams – University of Georgia, Nicholas Dufault – University of Florida, Tim Brenneman – University of Georgia, Mike Howell – Mississippi State … Read More
Peanut Pickin’ Time Print is Popular
Jack DeLoney was raised on a farm and his art reflects his Southern roots. “I paint a lot of agricultural things, peanuts and cotton,” the Alabama artist says. His new watercolor print called “Pickin’ Time” is a bit of a departure from much of his work that tends to focus on the heritage of farming in the south. “Usually they’re … Read More
Mississippi Still the New Kid on the Block
The Mississippi Peanut Growers Association is still the “new kid on the block” at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, even though they have been involved since 2006. Because Malcolm Broome is the newest of the executive directors charged with planning the conference, the running joke this year was that he got blamed for anything that went wrong! Malcolm says being … Read More