USDA’s Ag Statistics Service reports the peanut crop as being about seven percent excellent, 51 good, 32 fair, and eight poor.
The whole harvest is only 12 percent harvested so far. Their five-year average is only 13. In Georgia, the biggest news is that they’re getting pretty dry.
According to Scott Munford, the peanut specialist, he says that the leaf spot is also causing some early defoliation of peanuts and the peanut plants need to be harvested. He says growers need to irrigate or keep on irrigating. Growers also need to check dryland to see whether peanuts are coming loose in the hull.
If they are, they might need to be dug early or as soon as possible unless it’s too dry to dig. More and more acres are being harvested, he said. Yields and grades are off a little bit because peanuts were dug a little early due to the disease infestation and the dry hot conditions some growers have experienced during this season.
But overall, crop conditions in Georgia, topsoil is about 28 percent adequate only, 56 percent short, 15 percent very short, and the whole crop needs a rain.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.