By Clint Thompson
The dry month of June stalled Georgia’s dryland peanuts. While half of the state’s peanut acres are irrigated, half do not have access to irrigation. That made growers with dryland fields vulnerable to prolonged dry periods, like what producers experienced in June.
Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension peanut agronomist, discussed the scenario facing dryland peanut farmers.
“We’re probably going to have to dig some dryland to save what’s young. What happened is, if you planted early, we put on a crop. Then when that dry weather hit and it wilted down, it didn’t put on anymore,” Monfort said. “What we’ve got to do now is make a decision on, do we go ahead and go after those and save those versus trying to put on anymore?
“The problem is, a lot of this dryland is so wilted down, I don’t think they’re coming back. That’s not everything. In really bad areas, I think they’re done. As soon as we get a rain and can dig, we’re probably going to have to dig them if we want to save them.
“They’re not going to flush back out. They’re not going to put pods on; at least not in a time period where we can do anything.”
Dry June
According to the UGA Weather Network, Tifton, Georgia, received 1.78 inches of rainfall and only five rainy days. Albany, Georgia, received 2.08 inches of rainfall and six rainy days.
“We usually have a couple of weeks, but the last couple of years we’ve had two Junes that have been significantly dry. The problem is, when we did plant the majority of our peanuts, it went through that dry period at a stage where it needed to be growing, and we couldn’t get it to grow,” Monfort said. “That’s what backed us up.
“It didn’t grow. We started blooming late. This June dry situation is something we’re not used to handling. Usually, June is not that dry. Usually, it’s July going into August.”