Well, the peanut market’s been looking at some actual real figures on how many peanuts were planted this year.
Lots of guesses, but this is what USDA has published now based on the farmers reporting as of July the 15th. They’ll release the certified acres a little bit later, but they’re showing that Georgia will now drop from 915,000 acres harvested to 660,000. That is almost a 27 percent drop in Georgia compared to last year.
In Alabama, there is the same problem. They’re dropping 25 to 27 percent. Alabama last year had 192,000 acres.
This year, 142,000 acres. Florida, 167 last year. Dropped off to 127,000 acres of peanuts this year.
But they said overall the planted acres is 1.43 million acres. That’s down 7 percent from the previous estimate and down 27 percent from last year. The harvest is expected to be of 1.37 million acres.
That’s down 28 percent from last year. The U.S. production is forecast at 75.4 billion pounds. That’s down 25 percent as well.
So, the market should improve now, and prices are likely to go up. Average yield, they said, is going to be 3,956 pounds per acre in the new crop. That’s a look at peanuts.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.