Mississippi producers are showing that working for peanuts is
not a bad thing.
The state produced the second highest
per acre peanut yield in the country in 2005 with between 1.7
and 1.8 tons grown per acre. Since 2001, Mississippi jumped from
obscurity in peanut circles to No. 9 in the nation on the
strength of about 17,000 acres of the crop. Peanut acreage is
expected to increase about 10 percent this year.
Mike Howell,
Mississippi State University
Extension Service southeast district area agronomist, said the
2002 Farm Bill opened the door for the crop in Mississippi.
"When the quota system was eliminated,
it became possible for a lot more farmers to grow peanuts,"
Howell said. "The interest really sparked in the southeast
corner of the state where a few farmers had already been growing
peanuts for several years. Peanuts now are grown there,
throughout the Delta and in the northeast part of the state."
Diseases can transfer between peanuts
and soybeans, but peanuts make a good rotation crop for corn or
cotton. Peanuts can be grown on any soil type, although they
perform best on sandy soils. Heavy soils make harvest difficult
for this belowground crop.
"We can find sandy spots in most
counties in Mississippi," Howell said.
"The southeast part of the state will
probably remain the best part of the state for peanuts, but
peanuts can be grown anywhere there is sandy soil, such as along
rivers and creek bottoms."
Howell said the state has high yields
because it has low disease pressure.
"You have to rotate peanuts because of
disease pressure," Howell said.
"We’re on new soils so we don’t have the
disease pressure now that other state’s face, but we probably
will in five or six years."
Peanut harvest equipment is
significantly less expensive than harvest equipment for corn or
cotton, and peanut inputs match cotton’s input cost of $500 to
$600 an acre. With good per acre yields and a minimum price of
$355 per ton, Howell said peanuts are as economically attractive
as cotton grown on good land.
George County in southeast Mississippi
leads the state in peanut acreage with more than 2,000 acres in
2005 and 2006. Mike Steede, George County Extension director,
said he expects no real change in peanut acreage in his county
until a new Farm Bill changes farm policy again.
"Peanuts perform well in this area, and
do fairly well in a drought situation compared to other crops,"
Steede said.
Ken Hood, Extension agricultural
economist, said peanuts’ estimated value of production was $7.83
million in 2006.
"I expect this to increase in 2007 if
weather during the growing season is normal," Hood said. "Prices
have held steady, but if speculation is correct about large
tracts of Georgia peanut acreage moving to corn this year, we
may benefit as buyers offer premiums over the loan rate."
Hood said total peanut acreage
nationwide has steadily declined since 2002. Peanut stocks are
down from 2006, and it appears that national peanut production
will decline again in 2007.
"Buyers may try to lock in supply with
spring contract prices above the loan rate," Hood said.
A bill is pending in the Mississippi
Senate to impose a $2.50 per ton check off on peanuts. Howell
said the state’s peanut grower’s association is trying to
establish this program to fund research and promotion of the
crop in Mississippi.
Howell said peanuts grown in the
southeastern United States are of the highest quality in the
world, and most Mississippi peanuts end up in candy, peanut
butter or packaged as snacks.
In 2006, MSU entered the peanut retail
market with 18-ounce cans of crunchy and smooth peanut butter,
and 1-ounce foil packages and 12- and 60-ounce cans of roasted
peanuts. Each of these products is available for purchase on
campus in the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment
Station Sales Store, also known as the MSU Cheese Store.
By Bonnie Coblentz