Wait! Not so fast! Even though March is National Peanut Month, local farmers are still waiting for the right conditions to begin planting their peanut crop. Recent research at the University of Georgia has cautioned farmers to wait until soil temperatures reach 68 F at the 4” depth. This work has shown that peanut seed …
We are looking forward to a great panel of speakers for our Row Crop Economic Sustainability Workshop on March 17th at 4:00 PM. Agricultural Economists from University of Florida and University of Georgia will discuss important topics such as Crop Enterprise Budgets and Grain Marketing. Because we are looking at negative returns in some cases, we will also …
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We have been working with Sunn Hemp as a summer cover crop on a production scale for about 5 years now. This is a fast growing, nitrogen fixing legume that thrives in a warm climate. One local farmer plants a couple irrigated fields each year after the corn crop is harvested. These are fields that have two …
In this area of North Florida corn planters are usually rolling by the first week of March. I suspect there may be one or two going already. However, February weather has been a bit unnerving for most as they are ready to get the cropping season underway. I was a bit surprised when I looked at …
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 …
After a slow and soggy start to peanut harvest, the dust is flying across North Florida. Here is a short video from the Starling Farm in Suwannee County. The peanuts were dug in good soil moisture and much of that soil dries around the plant roots. The job of the combine head is to knock some …
I have had nematodes on my mind throughout our cropping season. Seems that sometimes we forget those pesky roundworms can ruin an otherwise good year. A colleague at University of Georgia, Rome Etheridge, recently shared a post on Seminole Crops E-News about both cotton and peanuts with nematode problems. Perhaps I haven’t looked closely enough at the …
My phone often rings with questions about the peanut market. The market conditions are not as clear as the Chicago Board of Trade where farmers can pull up current prices 24 hours a day. They often think I may have some “inside track” of information they are not exposed to. Most farmers know little more than what they see on their farm. However, …
I share this quote that one of our North Florida farmers made this week. “Peanuts at Wadsworth haven’t had rain since around July 15, about 4 weeks, starting to see signs of needing water. Lafitte is not doing well at all, showing a lot of stress.” Moisture stress has been the name of the game …
It seems to me, just like clockwork, the 3rd and 4th week of July brings white mold (Sclerotium rolfsii) to area peanut fields each year. This year is no exception. We are starting to see leaves and stems “flagging,” giving an indication that stem tissue damage is occurring. Some of our farmers are trying to use the …