Peanuts are a unique crop in their reporting, compared to others. Every ton of peanuts that passes through the Federal State Inspection Service is recorded and the results are updated on a daily basis. This is quite different than corn and soybean crops which may be fed directly to livestock, may have been harvested early, left in the field until spring, or stored away in a grain bin.
It is no secret that I think the USDA peanut crop estimate was a little optimistic given that many areas of the Southeast recorded very low rainfall amounts throughout the growing season. Perhaps it is because I am from the “Show-Me State” I have to see the harvest numbers before I believe the yield estimates to be true. The summary numbers show that about 77% of the National peanut crop has been delivered and graded as of 11/3/14. The Florida statistics show only 65% of the estimated crop harvested. This lower number is somewhat typical because peanuts that are delivered to Alabama and Georgia buying points are preliminarily recorded in those states and shifted back to Florida as paperwork is finalized. However, I also think the October yield estimate for Florida was overly optimistic.
It looks like Texas and South Carolina, two large production states have a lot of harvesting left to do. There is also a pretty substantial amount expected in Georgia, almost a quarter million tons, as much as Florida produced this year. Big numbers from those states in the next 10 days whould bring us much closer to the 2.5 million tons of peanuts that are expected to be delivered this year. As I look back on my yield estimates of 2.2 million tons from my flacrops post (2014 Peanuts) dated 9/5/14, I am wondering if I wasn’t too far off.
We received an early freeze here in North Florida this week, and I suspect this event wrapped up peanut season throughout the Southeast from a maturity perspective. I am not aware of any unharvested peanuts in the area, this was a non-event for our local crop. We have had 30 days of near perfect harvesting conditions in the Southeast, I suspect harvest will be completed soon. It is my experience peanut season is usually “in the books” by November 15th.
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