Peanut Pointers: March 2025

Acreage Outlook for 2025

Peanut acreage is expected to remain elevated in 2025, which brings along increased risks, particularly as rotation intervals decrease. Growers need to be vigilant about soil fertility by taking soil samples and replenishing nutrients as necessary. To remain economical, it is essential to consider the cost of every input in 2025. Avoid cutting corners in your management strategies, as this does not always lead to increased returns.

Pest management becomes crucial, requiring careful consideration of disease and insect pressure on individual fields to find the balance between savings and adequate pest control. Adopting a “survival mode” approach doesn’t mean reducing necessary inputs, like fertility and pest management. On the contrary, it’s about making strategic decisions to ensure long-term sustainability. For example, shortening crop rotation can increase the risk of diseases. Simply relying on chemicals like Bravo/Tebuconazole to manage this elevated risk may not lead to higher economic returns.

With increased peanut acreage, early planting will be needed to plant this crop in a timely manner. This does not mean planting your entire crop in April. Spreading out the planting dates is always recommended. Cooler and wetter conditions in April and early May pose a higher risk for stand issues. Monitoring soil temperatures, moisture levels, germination percentage of the seed and the overall weather conditions over the coming weeks is important to ensure the seed has the best situation for rapid germination and emergence. By paying attention to these factors, growers can optimize their stands and start the growing season on the right foot.

Log Into The AU Variety Website

It’s obvious we are facing many challenges in the upcoming season. High inflation costs are continuing to deplete our equity because of suppressed commodity prices not being high enough to cover our input cost. In addition to economic challenges, the weather has taken a toll across Alabama in the past two years. Even though our yields were better in 2024 compared to 2023, our grades were worse in added insult to injury. This resulted in some of the worst grades many producers have had with only 5% of the crop grading at the loan rate or above.

Thankfully, our breeders are getting more varieties for us to choose from that can grade higher. We must take advantage of this because the lower grades cost some producers $100 per acre last year. Hopefully, we will have better weather and better timing of rainfall this season to help prevent that from happening.

As the planting season begins to get closer, we must think about which varieties to plant where and when due to their length of maturity, amount of resistance to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus and disease resistance within each variety that we have seed available to plant. Some producers have compromised their rotations due to circumstances recently, which will also play a role in variety selection and in-furrow treatments.

With these conditions, we should take a far more preventative approach to combating increased disease pressure early as well as increased root knot nematodes. Consider these factors and plant the right variety for the situation during the planting season. I know larger producers have to plant from the time conditions are favorable to start until the first of June, but many others could plant quicker. These producers should consider these factors and plant their crops more spaced out with the right variety for the circumstances. This would also help some smaller producers with the increase in acres to allow them more time at harvest without adding more equipment. Take some time and log into our variety testing website from Auburn University to help you make the best variety choice for your farm.

Manage Controllable Factors

In 2024, Texas peanut acreage was up by 15,000 acres. The increased amount is especially obvious in the Spanish-market type. Ground planted to Spanish-market-type peanuts increased from 79,734 acres in 2023 to 109,419 acres in 2024 (Figure 1). This represented 87% of Spanish-market type acres in the United States.

The 2025 Texas peanuts acreage will be determined based on many factors including, but not limited to: market prices, new legislation policies, soil moisture situations and crop rotation considerations. There are many things that are out of our control in the agricultural world; therefore, it is critical that we ensure the 2025 season starts well by managing controllable factors such as taking soil samples and checking soil temperature.

Taking a soil sample removes the guessing game out of your equation, and this can potentially save on fertilizer costs. If you saw stunted growth, yellowing leaves and unfilled pods last year, these could be fixed by managing the soil fertility issues.

Optimum soil temperature for peanut germination is at least 68 degrees F for three consecutive days without a cold front in forecast. In 2024, the soil temperature in Seminole, Texas, was suitable for planting by April 25, which was roughly three days earlier than the five-year average temperature in the area. Cold snaps and dry soil conditions can slow down germination of peanut and cotton. The longer seeds stay in the soil, the more susceptible they become to soilborne and seedling diseases. You are always encouraged to take the soil temperature recording directly from your fields.

Rely On Crop Rotation Data

As we move toward planting the 2025 peanut crop, there are many pressures on financial stability. Higher prices of inputs and depressed commodity prices have caused some farmers in the Virginia-Carolina region to consider modest increases in peanut acreage. When looking at the contribution of income to a farming operation, some of our most dependable crops in a rotation with peanuts are struggling. This decision is made on a farm-by-farm basis, and there is not a singular answer.

What are the impacts of a less-than-ideal previous crop sequence for peanuts in 2025? Equally important, how will peanuts planted in 2025 affect peanuts down the road? Crop University and U.S. Department of Agriculture crop rotation studies can give us insight into the possible impacts. Grower observations do as well, and the folks that make recommendations to them.

Many crop sequences have not been evaluated from a research perspective. Some of the findings we have in North Carolina can give a grower an idea of what more soybeans in the rotation can do to peanut yields. In those trials, we often look at the interaction of crop rotation and other practices such as fumigation and/or variety resistance. In many cases, the resistant variety or fumigation helps overcome a poor rotation for peanuts. However, this is not always the case. There is no substitute for a good rotation, but there are ways to get a lot of the yield back following a poor rotation. The answer is site specific.

Speaking of “no substitutes,” I have gotten a few questions about inoculation for nitrogen fixation. In new peanut ground, there is no substitute for successful inoculation. Do whatever you have to do to get a liquid inoculant in the bottom of the seed furrow. Apply a peat-based inoculant with the seed for insurance as well. I would do both in new ground, but the in-furrow application is “off the charts” in terms of importance. It will be the most important input in a new ground setting.

The peat-based product placed directly on the seed will help partially overcome issues with equipment. In new ground, our work shows that yields of non-inoculated peanuts are 65% that of inoculated peanuts. In rotated ground, we often see yields that are 5% greater when peanuts are inoculated. Inoculation pays for itself in all cases.