Cotton and corn acreage in Mississippi are more than 30% below March projections, while growers of soybeans and peanuts planted much more than initially forecasted. The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service released a report at the end of June updating the amount of crop acreage planted statewide. It compared those amounts to how much growers said they ... Read More »

Reduce digging losses with proper setup and field checks. • By Amanda Huber • Once the decision to dig has been made and equipment is readied and pulled into the field, a quick field test is needed to put the final adjustments into place. Clemson University agricultural engineer Kendall Kirk says that producers should synchronize the speed of their digger’s ... Read More »

NCSU Research And Extension Plant Pathologist A Voice Of Accuracy And Precision • By David Jordan • This fall, Dr. Barbara Shew will retire after many years of contributions to the peanut industry. Her work has encompassed the core components of the land-grant system — Extension, research and teaching — and in doing so, she has touched the lives of ... Read More »

Learn how to properly collect soil and root samples to test for nematodes. Nationwide, crop losses caused by nematodes are estimated at around 5% to 10% annually. In the Southeast, where environmental conditions favor growth and reproduction of nematodes, losses are even higher. The seven most damaging nematode species that affect Alabama growers are soybean cyst, lesion, stunt, lance, reniform, ... Read More »

Coronavirus Food Assistance Program By the first week of June, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program had distributed more than 5 million food boxes in support of American farmers and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Farmers to Families Food Box Program was designed to put ... Read More »

Dig at optimum maturity with the aid of a profile board. • By Amanda Huber • Determining when to dig is always tough. The maturity profile board, developed in 1981 by E.J. Williams and J.S. Drexler, ushered in a new era of determining how close to ready a crop was without special equipment and the destruction of the pods. Auburn ... Read More »

July brings a series of decisions that are generally associated with disease management. While herbicides will need to be applied in some fields and there could be outbreaks of foliar-feeding insects (hopefully not spider mites), the key to optimizing yield will be timely applications of effective fungicides. Starting fungicide sprays at the R3 stage of peanut development is the general ... Read More »

Cover crops protect and improve the soil when a cash crop is not growing. Ways that cover crops lead to better soil health and potentially better farm profits are outlined in the following 10 key impacts. 1 Cover crops feed many types of soil organisms. Most soil fungi and bacteria are beneficial to crops. They feed on carbohydrates from plant ... Read More »

What to expect for the rest of this growing season and into the fall harvest period. • By Pam Knox, University Of Georgia Weather Network And Agricultural Climatologist • Now that June 1 has passed, we are in climatological summer and also in the official Atlantic tropical season. What can we expect for the rest of this growing season and ... Read More »

Stress in agriculture has never been greater. Two major hurricanes, Irma and Michael, quality problems and now germination issues, low commodity prices, COVID-19 pandemic, riots and unrest in cities, talk of food shortages, a devastating court ruling on a popular chemical product…the list seems endless. The U.S. peanut market has remained quiet during the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been no ... Read More »