Peanut growers attending Oklahoma State University’s Caddo Research Station Peanut and Cotton Field Tour on Sept. 19 will get a firsthand look at the new peanut variety Contender, the first high-oleic Virginia-type peanut adapted to the southwestern United States.
The Caddo Research Station is located just east of Highway 9 in Fort Cobb. The tour will take place from 5:15 -7 p.m. There is no cost to attend. Dinner will be provided to participants free of charge after the tour, thanks to the sponsors.
Released jointly by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and OSU’s statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system, Contender is the result of a cross between the high-oleic Virginia cultivar Brantley and high-oleic runner cultivar Red River Runner.
Kelly Chamberlin and Rebecca Bennett of USDA-ARS will be on hand to share insights about what goes into peanut variety development, with an emphasis on the Contender variety.
“Growers also will want to bring in samples for hull blasting at the afternoon maturity clinic, which will begin at 2:30 p.m.,” said John Damicone, OSU Cooperative Extension vegetable and field crop specialist. “Gauging harvest timing this year will be especially important for producers given the unusual season we’ve had in 2019.”
Despite late plantings this spring, the peanuts look good with generally low disease pressure, he said.
Cotton To Be Highlighted, Too
“We will be featuring plenty for cotton producers as well,” said Seth Byrd, OSU Cooperative Extension cotton specialist. “Irrigated cotton in the state looks pretty good this year, though dryland cotton has been challenged.”
Tour stop discussions focusing on cotton cropping systems and varieties, peanut disease control, weed control and irrigation will be led by Byrd; Damicone; Todd Baughman of OSU’s Institute for Agricultural Biosciences in Ardmore; and Saleh Taghvaeian, OSU Cooperative Extension water resources specialist.
Oklahoma State University contributed this article.
