A Punctual Peanut Update
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
Accounting for more than 50% of all U.S. peanut production according the USDA, Georgia is the peanut state. I spoke with Don Koehler, Georgia Peanut Commission Executive Director last week to check the pulse of this year’s crop..
“Our crop has been an interesting situation to get started this year. We’re a little bit cooler than we should be and you want soil temperatures to be in the high sixties when we plant a crop. Well, it took us a long time to get there.”
Then Mother Nature kind of forgot to include spring this year and the forecast skipped ahead to summer and 100-degree days…
“We’ve had a lot of variation. The farmers are pretty well planted right now and they’re just having to manage these issues. But the weather has kind of moderated now, so we hope going forward that we have the potential for a really good crop.”
As I spoke with Don Koehler last week, he was just headed to the Atlanta Motor Speedway where they were getting ready to cheer on Todd Gilliland in the Georgia Peanut car. This is one of two Nascar races where the Georgia Peanut Commission is featured as an exclusive sponsor of #38. The next? Talladega in October.
