By Clint Thompson
What a difference a couple of weeks have made for Georgia’s peanut crop. Amid a rainy start to the summer, the state’s peanuts, especially its dryland crop, were progressing well.
That progression stalled in recent weeks, however, due to increased dry conditions across the state.
Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension peanut agronomist, discussed the crop at this week’s Southern Peanut Growers Conference in Panama City Beach, Florida.
“If you had asked me that two weeks ago, I would say that every acre looks pretty good. But two to three weeks ago, everything started drying up,” Monfort said. “In Tifton, we’ve been a bubble. We’ve been getting rain all along, and it just started drying up a week ago. Everything around us looks really good. But then you get outside us, and as I’ve traveled the last two weeks and talked with people, it has been dry in places. It’s dry all over the state.
“Places are still getting (rain) but coming down here and going to the east part of the state over the last week, there are places that are struggling. We reached a good point, and now we’re backing up a little bit.”
According to the July 24 release of the U.S. Drought Monitor, abnormally dry conditions have popped up across Georgia, especially in the southwest corner of the state. It’s not ideal for Georgia’s peanut production which has entered a crucial period as far as rainfall needs.
“Right now, it’d be very beneficial. The majority of our peanuts are between 70 and 85 to 90 days. Everything is in that 60 to 90-day window, a majority of the crop is. That’s when we’re peak bloom,” Monfort said. “We need 1 to 2 inches a week, and we’re not getting it in some places. We’re struggling. What that’s going to do is push stuff behind a little bit.”