Peanut Grower November 2018

The

PEANUTGROWER ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC

NOVEMBER 2018

THE PEANUT PRODUCER'S MARKETING & PRODUCTION MAGAZINE www.peanutgrower.com

Virginia And Mississippi

Producers Honored An Early Look

At Harvest

Research Review: The Future Of Peanut Breeding

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The

NOVEMBER 2018

PEANUTGROWER ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC

NOVEMBER 2018

THE PEANUT PRODUCER'S MARKETING & PRODUCTION MAGAZINE www.peanutgrower.com

Virginia And Mississippi

Volume 30 • Number 8

Producers Honored An Early Look

At Harvest

Research Review: The Future Of Peanut Breeding

Departments 4

Editor’s Note We’ll get through this, too

5

News Briefs Work on Farm Bill continues

8

Market Watch Wide swath of industry infrastructure damaged

11 Features

10 Michael And Florence, An Unwelcome Couple

Never before have two hurricanes caused such destruction in the peanut industry.

11 Research Review

SPONSORED BY NATIONAL PEANUT BOARD

The Future Of Peanut Breeding

Supplement

15 Peanut Breeder Honored

Corn Hybrid Preview

CornSouth ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC

Southern Production & Marketing Strategies

November 2018

NCSU’s Tom Stalker recognized for collecting, evaluating or conserving genetic resources.

20 A Look At APRES’ 50th Anniversary

Celebrating The Past; Inspiring Our Future was a fitting theme for this event.

A Supplement to Cotton Farming and The Peanut Grower Magazines

Look for the Corn South supplement following page 22 in the Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi versions of The Peanut Grower.

T WIT TER : @PE ANUTGROWER

22 Conservation Media Library

This new resource offers how-to guides for implementing management practices.

Cover photo by Amanda Huber NOVEMBER 2018 • THE PE ANUT GROWER /

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EDITORIAL/PRODUCTION Editor Amanda Huber ahuber@onegrower.com Copy Editor Carroll Smith csmith@onegrower.com Art Director Ashley Kumpe

ADMINISTRATION Publisher/Vice President Lia Guthrie (901) 497-3689 lguthrie@onegrower.com Associate Publisher Carroll Smith (901) 326-4443 Sales Manager Scott Emerson (386) 462-1532 semerson@onegrower.com Circulation Manager Charlie Beek (847) 559-7324 Production Manager Kathy Killingsworth (901) 767-4020 kkillingsworth@onegrower.com

For circulation changes or change of address, call (847) 559-7578

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD John Beasley Extension Agronomist Auburn University Dell Cotton Peanut Growers Cooperative Marketing Assn., Franklin, VA Kris Balkcom Agri-Program Associate Auburn University Craig Kvien Coastal Plain Experiment Station,Tifton, GA

Jason Woodward Extension Plant Pathologist Texas A & M University David Jordan Extension Agronomist North Carolina State University Glen Harris Extension Agronomist University of Georgia Jason Ferrell Extension Weed Specialist University of Florida

ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC Mike Lamensdorf President/Treasurer Lia Guthrie Publisher/Vice President The Peanut Grower (ISSN 1042-9379) is an agribusiness magazine for U.S. peanut producers. Published in eight monthly issues, January through July and November. Annual subscriptions are $40.00. Single Copy price is $5.00. Annual overseas subscriptions are $70.00, including Canada/Mexico.

Periodicals postage paid at Memphis, TN. Copyright © 2018 One Grower Publishing, LLC, all rights reserved except where otherwise noted. The Peanut Grower ® is a registered trademark, which reserves all rights granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in association with the registration. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO OMEDA COMMUNICATIONS, CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT, P.O. BOX 1388, NORTHBROOK, IL 600651388. All statements, including product claims, are those of the person or organization making the statement or claim.

The publisher does not adopt any such statement or claim as its own, and any such statement or claim does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher. Printed in the USA. One Grower Publishing, LLC, also publishes Cotton Farming, Rice Farming, Soybean South and Corn South.

We’ll Be Back, Count On It

B

eing the editor of The Peanut Grower magazine is more than a job for me. In fact, this year marks 20 years. At the American Research and Education Society Meeting in July, I had an occasion to count up all my years in the peanut industry, which I figure to be close to 25. In other words, I’ve been around a while.

The industry has had some really good times and we’ve had our share of heartaches. Farm Bills in the ’90s were continuous. Then there was the change from the quota system that ended a lot Amanda Huber of friendships. The salmonella contamiEditor, The Peanut Grower nation and peanut butter recall was not fun to go through either. But all of that pales in comparison to the last month and a half.

Hurricane Michael has devastated so many people and so much of our peanut infrastructure that it’s hard to believe. A lot of the crop was picked in Florida, but Georgia was only about 50 percent harvested. The remaining 50 percent was or still is a big question mark.

“It’s really too early to tell the exact loss the peanut industry may face,” says Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension agronomist. “There are a lot of factors in play to determine the estimated loss due to delayed harvest in areas where farmers can’t get into the field or issues with infrastructure at peanut buying points where peanuts can’t be dried or graded without power.”

The Georgia Peanut Commission (GPC) was working with federal and state officials to assess the state of Georgia’s crop post-storm and to determine the best way forward.

In late October, Tim Burch of Baker County, Georgia, and GPC director from district one, had only been able to harvest about 100 of his 600 acres of peanuts. “This year’s near-perfect crop has been nearly destroyed. We need fair weather for a month so we can get in the remainder of the peanut crop.”

Wesley Powell, owner of Dollar Brothers, Inc. in Decatur County, Georgia, said, “In my 30 years of operating Dollar Brothers, this is by far the worst I’ve ever seen and the only insurance claim I have filed in 30 years. We had extensive damage to the peanut drying facility and peanut warehouse.”

Twisted metal, no power and even some molded peanuts are temporary conditions that will change in time. The peanut industry is a resilient one, and we will come back from this as we have all the other bad times.

One Grower Publishing, LLC

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THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

PE ANUTGROWE R .COM

2018 Farm Bill

The 2014 Farm Bill expired on Sept. 30, 2018. Congressional leaders now face the task of finding a compromise that can be approved by both chambers in a lame-duck session after the mid-term election. President Trump must sign the bill by the end of the calendar year.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) says the impasse is bigger than one person or even a single issue. He’s not ready to concede, and there is talk of a one-year extension. However, time is running out for the negotiators. The House has adjourned for the rest of the campaign season, so a new Farm Bill can’t be passed until after the election, even if the negotiators could reach a quick agreement.

Conaway and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), ag committee chairman, each said recently that their goal is to have a final bill ready by November to move through the House and Senate. The House is out of session until after the general election on Nov. 6.

In a show of unity recently, the chairmen and ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Agriculture committees emerged from a session together and posed arm in arm for reporters who were waiting outside. “I think we’re making progress,” Roberts said. “We’re in this together to get this thing done.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” added Conaway. “Our staffs are meeting regularly, and that’s good.”

Roberts said they closed out three of the 12 titles - trade, credit and energy.

Energy was the toughest of the three since the House-passed bill would eliminate that section altogether.

One of the fiercest battles is a dispute between Conaway and Roberts over a provision in the House bill that would end payments on base acres that have not been planted to a program crop for the past 10 years. The provision would save $900 million, which T WIT TER : @PE ANUTGROWER

would pay for revising yield averages for farmers enrolled in the Price Loss Coverage program whom have experienced extended periods of severe drought.

Roberts said that cutting off payments for unplanted base would be unfair to farmers who get that money and run afoul of the planting flexibility introduced by the 1996 Farm Bill. Conaway argues that making payments on land that has been in grass for a decade is no longer justified.

For peanuts, all segments of the industry are united in maintaining the present peanut program for the next five years.

Other Farm Bill Road Blocks

House Ag Chairman Conaway has said there are “deep differences” with the Senate negotiators over the conservation title, including the House bill’s elimination of the Conservation Stewardship Program. The savings from ending CSP would be used to fund other priorities within and outside that section of the legislation.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) added an amendment to the Senate bill in committee that earmarked $464 million over 10 years to maintain funding for USDA energy programs at the levels mandated by the 2014 Farm Bill and to reimburse dairy farms for premiums they paid into the Margin Protection Program from 2015 through 2017. The money came out of subsidies for cotton textile mills.

But the biggest problem continues to be the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program work requirement, which would require recipients to register for work or accept a suitable job if offered, unless they are elderly, disabled or children. President Trump has said “work requirements are imperative” for the Farm Bill.

When a farm law expires, SNAP and crop insurance remain in opera-

In Brief: • Negotiators trying to hammer out a Farm Bill • New NAFTA continued duty-free access to trading partners • Heavy disease pressuring harvest decisions • Total loss declared in Birdsong warehouse fire • The Peanut Institute: evidence supports superfood status • Customers visit peanut country

tion and most farm subsidy programs would run for a year. Land stewardship programs are in limbo and trade promotion and international food-aid programs are supposed to be halted.

New Trade Agreement

The United States, Canada and Mexico confirmed a new trade agreement, updating the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and renaming it the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement. This agreement, when approved by the U.S. Congress and the governments of the other two partner countries, will replace NAFTA. As of now, NAFTA is still in place.

U.S. peanuts, both processed and unprocessed, will continue to have duty-free access to both Canada and Mexico, as in the previous agreement.

However, there were two changes in the new agreement that affect peanuts.

For Canada, NAFTA limited the amount of peanut products that could be processed in Canada and re-imported back into the United States dutyfree to the amounts allowed under World Trade Organization commitments. Under the new agreement, the tariff on processed peanut products imported over this quota amount will 5

NOVEMBER 2018 • THE PE ANUT GROWER /

be phased out over a five-year period, but only for processed products made entirely from peanuts produced in one of the three origin countries (the United States, Canada or Mexico).

For Mexico, NAFTA specified that U.S. peanuts exported to Mexico could not be processed and shipped back into the United States without a duty of 131 percent. The new agreement eliminates this provision, with the same rules of origin that apply to Canada. This change is immediate once the agreement is enacted.

Changes In Response To Tariff Increases The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will buy affected products in four phases. The materials purchased can be adjusted between phases to accommodate changes due to growing conditions, product availability, market conditions, trade negotiation status and program capacity.

The AMS will purchase known commodities first. By purchasing in phases, procurements for commodities that have been sourced in the past can be purchased more quickly and included in the first phase.

Additionally, the AMS will ramp up

its vendor outreach and registration efforts. AMS has also developed flyers on how the process works and how to become a vendor for distribution to industry groups and interested parties.

Additionally, AMS will continue to host a series of free webinars describing the steps required to become a vendor.

AMS maintains purchase specifications for a variety of commodities, which ensures recipients receive the high-quality product they expect.

AMS in collaboration with FNS regularly develops and revises specifications for new and enhanced products based on program requirements and requests and will be prioritizing the development of those products impacted by unjustified retaliation.

AMS purchases commodities for use in FNS programs such as the National School Lunch Program, TEFAP and other nutrition assistance programs.

AMS is working closely with FNS to distribute products to state agencies that participate in USDA nutrition assistance programs as well as exploring other outlets for distribution of products, as needed.

The allocation for peanut butter is $12.3 million.

New President Of Golden Peanut And Tree Nuts

employs the use of aluminum pellets, may have been a part of the cause of the fire, the exact source

of the fire is still being investigated.

Fire is always a concern in warehousing peanuts.

Archer Daniels Midland Company recently announced that Clint Piper has been named president, Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts.

“Clint’s background and experience will serve him and the team well as they work to grow our Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts business,” said Greg Morris, ADM senior vice president and president, Oilseeds.

“He’ll be leading a great team, one that is passionate about their business and committed to its continued success. I’m excited to see the results as they work together to enhance efficiencies, accelerate growth and expand opportunities in the years to come.”

Piper joined ADM in 2007, and has served in multiple leadership roles, including commercial management positions in Valdosta, Georgia, and Kershaw, South Carolina Most recently, he was general manager of North American Cotton and Canola Risk Management. Piper holds an MBA from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and a bachelor’s in business administration and management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts, a

Birdsong Warehouse Burns

A peanut warehouse at Birdsong Peanuts in Sylvester, Ga. was recently destroyed by fire. Birdsong officials report that, fortunately, there were no injuries and the fire didn’t spread to additional warehouses or the shelling plant. The warehouse was a total loss in both structure and the 3,300 tons of farmers-stock peanut being stored.

Fire crews had to knock down one side of the warehouse to get inside the building but worked to extinguish it from both sides.

Although there is speculation that a fumigation process, which

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THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

PE ANUTGROWER .COM

wholly owned subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland Company, is a leading handler and processor of peanuts and tree nuts. With headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, the company has 13 processing facilities in the United States and one in Argentina. In South Africa, Golden is the majority owner of peanut processing plants in Hartswater, Hoopstad and Jan Kempdorp, and is 51 percent owner of pecan processor and marketer GPC Pecan S.A.

Disease Impacting Harvest Timing

Before the hurricane changed some of the parameters of harvest decisions, plant disease was the driving force behind considerations to move up harvest a few days, according to University of Georgia Extension peanut agronomist Scott Monfort.

“A combination of rainy weather, persistent cloudiness and farmers’ inability to get into fields and apply fungicides this summer led to the condition for many diseases.” Monfort said, “We have isolated areas where disease got away from some farmers due to the weather. It’s going to hurt yield potential and grade.

“On average, we had about a 30 percent decline in peanut acres this time compared to last year,” Monfort said.

“It probably would have been more like 20 percent if not for cotton prices reaching 90 cents and the rainy weather conditions that kept our growers from planting their full crop.”

Although it will be difficult, the reduced acreage and crop may help reduce oversupply and bring the need for rotation into focus.

APC Export Promotion Tours

One of the best ways to sell more peanuts is to bring a satisfied customer to America to experience the peanut harvest and watch the machines as the farmers dig, harvest and load peanuts for a trip to the buying point.

The American Peanut Council, who coordinates promotions abroad for T WIT TER : @PE ANUTGROWER

Peanuts Deserve Superfood Status

Based on a mountain of research, the Peanut Institute, a non-profit organization supporting peanut nutrition research and developing educational programs to encourage healthful lifestyles, says that the peanut deserves superfood status.

Studies almost too numerous to count have found that the consumption of small amounts of peanuts or peanut butter has been associated with a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

In this year alone, new research has shown that those who regularly consumed peanuts had a lower risk for four kinds of cancer — breast, colorectal, esophageal and pancreatic.

“Studies conducted in the United States and around the world reveal that eating peanuts regularly helps prevent disease, improves life expectancy and delivers positive effects throughout the body,” says Samara Sterling, Ph.D., director of research for The Peanut Institute.

“Peanuts qualify as a superfood because they’re nutrient-dense, delivering superior health benefits in a very small serving.

A one-ounce serving of peanuts, which is about a handful, contains seven grams of protein, 19 vitamins and minerals, bioactive compounds, healthy fats and fiber.

U.S. peanuts, recently had a group of more than 40 Mexican manufacturers visiting McRae, Tifton and Douglas Counties in Georgia. Mexico is the second largest export market, behind Canada, and the fastest growing. The APC expressed appreciation to Texas Peanut Producers, Georgia Peanut Commission, the Peanut Institute, Premium Peanut and Golden Peanut for helping organize the September tour.

One of the largest contingents of

Japanese customers hosted by APC visited Raleigh and Edenton, North Carolina, in October. They visited the North Carolina State Peanut research facilities, Severn Peanut Company, Hampton Farms and J. Leek and Associates. Virginia peanuts are the preferred market type in Japan.

The Council has representatives in several countries coordinating a $3 million budget under the approval of the Foreign Agricultural Service of USDA. PG 7

NOVEMBER 2018 • THE PE ANUT GROWER /

Wide Swath Of Industry Infrastructure Damaged

T

he peanut industry has been jolted by two hurricanes this season. Florence hit North and South Carolina as harvest was about to start with f looding that caused rivers to overflow and covering crops waiting to be harvested.

Wit h about 40 perc ent of t he Southeast peanut crop dug and harvested, Hurricane Michael plowed into the Florida Panhandle with 155 mile per hour sustained wind destroying cities, crops and valuable infrastructure in a wide and arching path all the way to the East Atlantic Coast.

Officials say that it will take years for rural towns in the heart of agricultural areas from Florida to Virginia to recover. Major destruction followed a path along the Southeastern peanut belt from North Florida, Southeast Alabama, Southwest and Central Georgia and on to South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

Reduced Acreage Several structures have been damaged or destroyed with heavy damage to trees and power lines. Many locations are without electricity and that brings on problems with peanut harvest. Without electricity in these rural buying points, peanuts cannot be dried for grading and warehouse storage. The Federal State Inspection offices based in A lbany had to relocate to Moultrie to provide Internet services that were lacking with no electricity in Albany.

Storm losses will improve market prices and cause come of the industry problems to be answered. Nationally, Congress can’t agree on passing the Farm Bill and face a one-year extension.

Leaders are positive on passing the bill in November.

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THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

J. Tyron Spearman

Contributing Editor, The Peanut Grower

Leading Marketing Indicators (As of Oct. 15, 2018) 2018 Acreage, Down 22%................................................ 1,384,500 acres 2018 Est. Production (4,167 lbs/A) ..................................... 2,884,525 tons 2017 Market Loan (2017 crop) .......................................... 2,734,479 tons 2017 Market Loan Not Redeemed ..................................... 183,858 tons 2017 Forfeitures (10-2) ............................................................. 87,385 tons 2017-18 Domestic Usage (12 Mo.) ............................... Up + 1.8 percent 2017-18 Exports (12 Mo) ............................................. Down - 5.5 percent NATIONAL POSTED PRICE (per ton) Runners - $424.32; Spanish - $413.60; Valencia and Virginias - $430.46

The Trump administration is applying tariffs, and farmers are expecting retaliation on farm products. USDA has tried to help in implementing a payment program for commodities and even bought $12.3 million of peanut butter for nutrition programs. One farmer commented that it may help overall, but it doesn’t help the farmer in the short term.

Still Large Carryforward USDA indicates the 2018 crop will be down about 19 percent from last year after reducing harvested acreage 22 percent, down to 1,384,500 acres. With an average yield of 4,167 pounds per acre, that’s a U.S. peanut harvest of 2,884,515 tons.

Reductions for sown area in Georgia and Texas trimmed the total acreage by 75,500 acres to 1.43 million. The forecast yield would remain the second highest on record—just 1.4 percent lower than the record yield and carryover in 2012/13. Peanut carryforward remains at 1,278,000 tons. According to

agronomists, peanuts still in the ground have fared well, but with all the trees and power lines still down on small, rural roads, many of them dirt roads, it may be some time before many producers can get their picker into the field.

PLC 2017 Payment The Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payment has been announced by USDA for farmers with a farm base. The average farm price of peanuts in 2017 was $458 per ton. USDA announced the PLC payment at $77 per ton. That only applies to 85 percent of the farm base.

Redeeming Loan Tonnage Shellers are offering $381-$385 per ton for uncontracted 2017 peanuts stored in the loan. Loan inventory was at 183,858 tons as of Oct. 3 compared to 2016 levels of 18,010 tons.

USDA would like for these loan peanuts to be redeemed and sold to the trade. USDA wants to avoid forfeitures.

Already, 87,000 tons have been forfeited from the 2017 crop. USDA has not indiPE ANUTGROWER .COM

cated a plan to sell the forfeitures. About 90 percent of the 2018 peanut crop has been entered into the loan.

These numbers are not a trend, just one month. Peanut usage last year was up 1.8 percent.

Domestic Market Slows Peanut stocks in commercial storage as of Aug. 31, 2018, totaled 2.31 billion pounds equivalent farmer stock, compared to 1.01 billion pounds last year, up 129 percent. Shelled peanuts on hand farmer stock equivalent totaled 694 million pounds, up 19.0 percent. Roasted stocks were 47.8 million pounds, up 105.0 percent. Stocks indicate the tremendous supply of peanuts awaiting a market.

There is a slowing of peanut usage.

USDA shows only one month, but it could be a trend. Peanut use in candy is down 10.4 percent, snack peanut usage is up 18 percent, peanut butter down 12.5 percent, with overall usage down 2.67 percent for the first month.

Export Unknowns In the new North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. peanuts, both processed and unprocessed, will continue to have duty-free access to both Canada and Mexico, as in the previous agreement. That’s good news for the trading partners. The 25 percent tariff being posed by China could impact shipments, but they have a good crop and are not buying anyway. China is reporting that the 2018 crop is large, so, coupled with a large carryover, don’t look for many exports.

Then there is Argentina. They keep coming back year after year. After terrible harvest weather this past year, indications are that they will plant about the same this coming year. Overall, the

“

It will take years for rural towns in the heart of agricultural areas from Florida to Virginia to recover.

uncertainty from storms, tariffs and lack of transparency have the export market is disarray.

Hurt Bad The U.S. peanut crop has been hurt, not only in the field, but the infrastructure. Farmers, buying points, shellers and associated businesses have been damaged by the two hurricanes. It will take years to recover and some may not survive. Meanwhile, markets seem secondary when disaster comes. PG

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Vice President Mike Pence, who also made an appearance at the Sunbelt Ag Expo, visited farmers and agriculture facilities damaged by Hurricane Michael with U.S. Senators David Perdue (R-GA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. They were joined by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Congressman Sanford Bishop, plus other state and local officials.

Michael And Florence, An Unwelcome Couple Never before have two hurricanes caused such destruction and disruption in the peanut industry.

By Amanda Huber

F

lorence was a powerful storm that weakened before making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane. Michael continued to grow in strength even a little while after landfall. Florence dumped buckets of rain and freshwater flooding was the primary impact. Michael’s 155 mile per hour winds leveled entire towns. From Florida to Virginia, this destructive couple has forever changed the landscape of the peanut industry as well.

A Compounding Of Problems In the days after Hurricane Michael struck, the Georgia Federal State Inspection Service reported that 54 buying points in Southwest Georgia were 10 /

without electricity and they were not able to grade and inspect the peanuts.

Buying points were also not able to dry the peanuts that farmers have already picked, and most have structural damage to their facilities. Even after power was restored to the GAFSIS headquarters in Albany, the lack of Internet meant they had to relocate some of their daily operations to their Moultrie district office.

Until the storm, weather in the Southeast had been ideal for peanut harvest with hot, dry conditions, sometimes too dry.

Florence Impacts Hurricane Florence crept onshore in mid-September bringing lots of rain, as

THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

much as 20 inches in some areas. This type of catastrophic freshwater can get worse in the days and weeks after the storm as rivers and streams continue to rise. The storms in North Carolina and South Carolina caused some peanuts to be lost, but possibly not as much as early estimates.

After Florence, Clemson Extension peanut specialist, Dan Anco, was reminding producers about airplane fungicide applications, which could help provide coverage where fields are too wet to drive the sprayer.

“If earlier Virginia type fields are too wet to be dug on time and get delayed about a week, there may still be peanuts worth digging, but this also depends on how healthy the vines are and how advanced or tight the maturity was.

Runner peg strength provides more leeway than Virginia types that can drop off quicker once they pass the black pod stage.”

He also recommended that once the ground was dry enough to prevent bogging and ruts, digging a few passes in a field where digging was delayed can help provide a visual on what the potential crop looks like.

“Peanuts can usually survive three days of being under water,” he says.

North Carolina Report An August drought on top of a wide range of planting dates in May and June had caused considerable variation in the North Carolina peanut crop, says David Jordan, North Carolina State Extension peanut specialist.

“A final contributing factor has been rainfall from both Hurricanes Florence and Michael. Although fields recovered from Hurricane Florence relatively well, rain from typical weather patterns and more recently Hurricane Michael limited field operations in some areas of the region.”

Jo rd a n s a y s , u n l i k e Fl o re n c e , Hurricane Michael moved through the V-C region relatively quickly and limited the amount of rainfall received.

Yield potential remains at around 3,700 pounds per acre and quality is generally good but not optimum.

Overall, this will be one of the longest and slowest harvest periods ever and the extent of the impact from the weather this fall may not be known for months. PG PE ANUTGROWER .COM

R E S E AR CH RE V IE W:

The Future Of Peanut Breeding

Sponsored by National Peanut Board

R ES EA R C H R E V I E W:

The Future Of Peanut B THE GOAL: PRECISION PEANUT BREEDING Precision agriculture, at least in some form, has been widely adopted in peanut farming.

For most, it came through using auto steer as a navigation aid to help plant and dig peanuts more accurately. The use of global positioning system receivers helped producers stay on the row and increased digging efficiency greatly. While it was an improvement over human eyesight, it still offered too much room for error. With producers wanting and needing passto-pass accuracy down to the sub-inch, the use of GPS signal correction using Real Time Kinematic (RTK) technology came about. This more advanced technology improved the accuracy of auto steer even further.

But auto steer is only one tool in your tool box. Would you go back to planting and digging without it? Probably not. But it takes many tools to produce a crop. Any time you can add a tool that improves efficiency over an old tool, that’s what you should do.

YOUR BOLD MOVE And that’s what you did for peanut breeding. Along with shellers and manufacturers, peanut producers, through producer organizations and with the Peanut Foundation taking the reins, initiated a bold research project to map the peanut’s genetic code.

Until that time, peanut breeders were making selections using techniques of crossing various lines that showed promise and were successful in moving the industry forward through improved varieties. These conventional breeding techniques made it possible to overcome diseases such as Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus and increase average yields by more than 1,000 pounds. Since 1969, 105 peanut cultivars were registered. But the truth is, peanuts were behind in advanced variety development technology by as much as 10 years.

While there is the need to increase disease resistance or overcome the allergy issue for peanut farmers and the peanut industry as a whole, there is also the pressing need to expand all of agriculture worldwide in order to feed 11 billion people by 2050. Peanuts are the third most important oilseed in the world, and production of all agricultural crops must increase by more than 70 percent to meet this future need. That’s why moving toward precision peanut breeding is so critical.

USING BETTER TOOLS Precision breeding, simply put, is a group of tools and methods used to develop new varieties more precisely and rapidly. Now that we know the genetic sequence of the peanut, we can look into what those specific genes do. However, it needs to be noted that knowing and being able to select traits beneficial to our needs of pest resistance or drought response doesn’t mean breeders are moving away from conventional breeding techniques toward genetic modification.

Your use of RTK GPS doesn’t mean you don’t use the tractor any more. You still need the tractor. Being able to identify and select traits makes conventional breeding faster and more efficient — but it is still conventional breeding. Genetic modification is another potential tool, but is not the direction the peanut industry is moving. Thanks to the completion of the Peanut Genomic Initiative and tools that are being developed and will continue to be developed, peanut breeders have advanced techniques that will work to improve conventional breeding for at least 25 to 30 years. The tools are available to move toward precise peanut breeding.

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THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

Where Are We Now? •

Precision agriculture coupled with precision breeding could allow the available food supply to keep up with the growing world population.

•

Molecular peanut breeding will reduce the time and effort required to develop improved cultivars.

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Future peanut breeders should be (and must be) well-trained in molecular and traditional breeding methods.

•

Extensive phenotyping of genotyped material is essential to develop a collection of trait-associated markers for peanut.

•

For peanut breeders to use marker assisted selection in their programs, it is imperative that the sampling cost be affordable.

•

With the use of marker assisted breeding, peanut breeding by design can become a reality!

Source: Kelly Chamberlin, USDA ARS, Stillwater, Oklahoma

GRAPHICS BY VECTEEZY.COM

ut Breeding THE LAUNCH: PROPELLING THE SCIENCE FORWARD Rockets launch because they burn a great amount of fuel at once but in a manner to propel the craft forward and not have it explode. In reality, the launch is not caused by a single ignition and thrust. That would only get it so far. Space shuttles are hurled into space because of multiple thrusts provided by two solid rocket boosters and three main engines.

The solid rocket boosters are the heavy lifters on the shuttle and provide most of the initial thrust, but only burn for about two minutes, after which the solid rocket booster fuel tanks separate from the shuttle and fall back to Earth. The engines burn and propel the craft further into space, but only for about eight minutes each. It takes all these various bursts of energy and momentum to launch the space craft, which weighs about 4.4 million pounds, at a speed of thousands of miles per hour needed to get through our atmosphere and beyond the reach of Earth’s gravitational pull.

A GIANT LEAP The advancement of peanut breeding, and all plant breeding for that matter, can be thought of in a similar way. At one time, it was only the farmers saving seed selected from their best performing plants. As science progressed, more was known about the biology of the plant and better plant breeding could take place. Each breakthrough in plant breed-

ing thrust it further. Completion of the Peanut Genomic Initiative was a big boost forward for peanut plant breeding and the peanut industry that depends on these varieties.

These discoveries offer new capabilities to find beneficial genes in cultivated and wild peanut species.

But the PGI project brought more than mapping the peanut genome. Additional capabilities were discovered. One of those is the ability to move genes from wild peanut species, which are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, to cultivated peanut species, which are tetraploid and have four sets of chromosomes. As simple as that sounds in one sentence, the feat was huge in the peanut breeding world.

AN EXCITING FUTURE Now, both the wild species and cultivated species, which were collected by some of our early peanut breeding researchers and make up the USDA peanut core collection in Griffin, Georgia, can be combed through for desirable traits.

Finding some of these traits and narrowing down the collection to a more manageable mini-core collection has already been accomplished. All of these achievements propel peanut breeding forward and bring an exciting future to the peanut industry. As we dig deeper into the specific genes looking for those desirable traits, the future of peanut plant breeding will happen on this molecular level.

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Constraints In Molecular Breeding Very few molecular markers

Very few molecular markers

No genetic map or maps with low marker density

No genetic map or maps with low marker density

No genome sequence

No genome sequence

No available appropriate germplasm, mapping populations and/or phenotyping data

No available appropriate germplasm, mapping populations and/or phenotyping data

No trait-associated markers Capacity and skills of breeders due to lack of molecular background/training

Peanut Genome Is Sequenced!

Cost prohibitive

No trait-associated markers Capacity and skills of breeders due to lack of molecular background/training Cost prohibitive

Source: Kelly Chamberlin, USDA ARS, Stillwater, Oklahoma

THE MASTERPIECE: OUR FUTURE VARIETIES Can you look at a piece of sheet music with hundreds, if not thousands, of notes and know what it sounds like? Perhaps you can read music. Breaking down that sheet of music, you find the specific notes, an A, a B, middle C, a G. The notes will be in the natural key or one that is flat or sharp. You can know the number of beats per measure by looking at the timing signature and determine whether it is fast or slow. Symbols tell you where to rest, where to repeat and where to skip ahead. You can read all of that, but do you know what it sounds like?

That’s where peanut breeding is today. Determining what the notes sound like. We have the specific genetic sequence that makes up the peanut. Now it’s a matter of taking that genetic map and digging into those specific regions of the map, called markers, to determine their function or what specific trait it offers. The genetic map is the sheet music. The markers are the notes. The sound is what that trait actually does in the peanut plant.

DIGGING EVEN DEEPER The differences that distinguish one plant from another are encoded in the plant’s genetic material, the DNA. DNA is packaged in chromosome pairs or strands of genetic material, one coming from each parent. The genes, which control a plant’s characteristics, are located on specific segments of each chromosome. All of a plant’s genes, together, make up its genome. That’s where we are with the peanut. We know this genome.

Some traits, like flower color, may be controlled by only one gene. Other more complex characteristics, like crop yield or oil content, may be influenced by many genes. Traditionally, plant breeders selected plants based on their visible or measurable traits.

This process is slow and costly, and as we now know, is outdated.

QUICKER, MORE EFFICIENT BREEDING A quicker way and the direction future peanut breeding is moving is the use of marker-assisted selection to help identify specific genes. The markers are a string or sequence of nucleic acid that makes up a segment of DNA. The markers are located near the DNA sequence of the desired gene. Since the markers and the genes are close together on the same chromosome, they tend to stay together as each generation of plants is produced. This is what helps researchers predict whether a 14 /

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plant will have a desired gene. If researchers can find the marker for the gene, it means the desired gene itself is present.

Work is being done to find the specific markers for many traits in peanut, such as leaf spot. In order to find markers associated with specific traits, both genetic and phenotypic (visual or measurable data) must be gathered and correlated. In a test set of plants designed specifically for identifying markers associated with a certain trait, DNA is taken from each plant and analyzed. The same plants are examined for the specific trait in the field for a period of years. This is called phenotyping and is necessary to determine which markers correlate to what trait. When the specific markers are always present in leaf spot resistant plants, breeders can use those markers to select those peanut plants in their breeding programs. Whatever it is that the peanut plant or peanut kernel can exhibit – disease resistance, drought tolerance, reduced skin slippage, improved blanchability — there is a marker for it. The bottleneck, if you will, for molecular peanut breeding is effective marker-trait associations or phenotyping markers to determine the traits.

REAL WORLD APPLICATION With the PGI project completed last year, the Peanut Foundation has shifted its focus to more applied problem-solving tools for the industry. The four problems they are working towards are leaf spot, aflatoxin, drought tolerance and flavor/quality issues.

Building on the mechanisms created by nature, the latest innovations in plant breeding methods will result in the breeding of peanut varieties in less time and with greater precision.

What was learned through the PGI adds greatly to plant breeders’ ability to get to that level. When it all comes together, it will be the masterpiece of new and better peanut varieties that lead to reduced production costs, less disease pressure, greater yields, improved processing traits, increased nutritional content and better flavor. Worldwide, U.S. peanut producers will be more competitive. An exciting future for peanut breeding and the peanut industry is just ahead. RR

Peanut Breeder Honored NCSU’s Tom Stalker recognized for service to humanity through collecting, evaluating or conserving the Earth’s genetic resources.

P

eanuts are not only among North Carolina’s top agricultural commodities, they also represent a key source of protein for people around the world. Making them even better has been Tom Stalker’s life work.

A professor and former head of North Carolina State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Stalker is considered one of the world’s most important peanut scientists. He’s especially known for efforts to maintain, characterize and use genetic material from wild peanuts to diversify and improve cultivated species.

Stalker has traveled around the globe to collect and distribute seeds and plant tissue, to share his knowledge with farmers and fellow researchers and to serve as a leader in the effort that resulted in the first peanut genome map.

Traveling The World For Peanuts Offspring of the 18 peanut breeding lines he has developed over his nearly 40-year career at NCSU have been used by other scientists to create countless peanut varieties. These breeding lines are especially known for resisting pests, and their descendants are used throughout the world — in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Bailey, a popular North Carolina variety developed by Stalker’s colleague Thomas Isleib, traces its disease resistance to Stalker’s breeding lines. And more and better genetic materials are on their way, Stalker said.

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Preserving Genetic Resources For his contributions to the nation’s plant germplasm system, he recently received the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. According to the Crop Science Society of America, the medal goes to an individual who, over a long career, “has shown dedication and service to humanity through collecting, evaluating or conserving the Earth’s genetic resources.”

Stalker’s dedication and service have not been limited to peanut science. Earlier this year, he was inducted into North Carolina’s prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine, an award from the governor recognizing outstanding service to the state.

He also received the national Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

The latter honors those Eagle Scouts who have, over the 25 years or more since they received that recognition, reached the highest national level of success in their field and demonstrated a strong record of volunteer leadership in their communities. Stalker became an Eagle Scout at the age of 13, and his two sons are Eagle Scouts. He has been a volunteer Scout leader for the past 37 years.

Stalker received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agronomy from the University of Arizona in 1971 and 1972, respectively.

He received a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Illinois in 1977 and was a research associate at N. C. State University for 2 years prior to being appointed as an Assistant Professor in 1979 to work in peanut cytogenetics and interspecific hybridization. He was promoted to Professor in 1989.

Congratulations, Dr. Stalker, for an honor well deserved. PG

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State-Winning Farmers Two peanut farmers, one from Virginia and another from Mississippi, were selected as state winners of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award.

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eanuts are an important part of the crop mix for two of the nine Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year state winners. Let’s take a closer look at the two peanut producers chosen for this honor.

Paul Rogers, Jr. — Virginia Farmer Of The Year Paul Rogers, Jr., of Wakefield, Va., has had a long and successful farming career, and an equally extensive and rewarding avocation as a youth league and high school baseball coach.

As a result of his success as a crop farmer, Rogers has been selected as state winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year award. He joins nine other individuals as finalists for the overall award at the Sunbelt Expo farm show in Moultrie, Ga. Good Crop Mix Rogers is a modest individual. “I’m just a humble man who tills the soil,” he says. Yet his farm encompasses 1,680 acres of open land. He rents 1,122 acres, owns 558 acres of open land and also owns 499 acres of timber.

Last year, his per-acre yields were 183

16 /

bushels of corn from 468 acres, 1,322 pounds of cotton lint from 549 acres and 5,136 pounds of peanuts from 159 acres. His soybeans yielded 53 bushels per acre for both full-season beans on 91 acres and double-cropped soybeans on 374 acres. His double-cropped beans followed wheat, yielding 76 bushels per acre. Only 5 percent of his cotton, 10 percent of his corn and 25 percent of his peanuts were irrigated.

In marketing, he works with his son using basis contracts, forward pricing, cash contracts, options and other contracts. They rely on a marketing firm for pricing advice and have used a consultant for managing and selling timber.

Rogers also provides custom cotton harvesting on 250 acres for a neighbor.

This year, he’s growing double-cropped cotton after wheat. He increased cotton acreage this year due to stronger prices.

THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

Making His Own Way While he adopts new seed and equipment technology, he says his yields are due to crop rotation and conservation tillage planting.

Rogers grew up on a farm, but his father died when he was 15. The farm was rented out until he returned after graduating from a two-year agriculture program at North Carolina State University. After his father died, his mother sold most of the farm equipment, so he had to build up the equipment inventory. He relied on advice from other farmers, and bought a farm from one of his father’s lifelong friends.

Rogers has sold timber three times during his career. The first was to help settle his father’s estate with his sister who also inherited the farm. His other timber sales were timed to invest in capital such as purchasing additional farmland. Much of the lumber from his most recent pine timber sale was shipped to Italy and made into burial coffins.

Long Crop Rotation He grows Virginia type “ballpark” peanuts, and he receives premiums for jumbo and fancy peanut kernels. Rogers says the loss of the peanut quota proPE ANUTGROWER .COM

Paul Rogers, Jr.’s Peanut Production: • • • •

159 acres of Virginia-type peanuts Yield of 5,136 pounds per acre 25 percent irrigated Rotations of five to six years

Rogers is a member of the USDA Peanut Standards Board. He’s a board member and is a past chairman of Colonial Farm Credit. For 10 years, he chaired the AgFirst Farm Credit District Advisory Committee.

gram was a blessing because it allowed him to use longer rotations to increase yields. “I’m making more peanuts on less land,” he says. Some peanuts are on sixyear rotations, and most are planted after four or five years out of peanuts.

Having coached baseball for more than 50 years, it’s appropriate that Rogers grows ballpark peanuts. A baseball coach at Tidewater Academy since 2005, his team won a state championship in 2013.

He has long been active as a coach and director of youth baseball in Wakefield.

Recently, the town named its youth league baseball fields after Rogers, and in 2004, his former players placed a plaque in his honor at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York “If you have a passion for something like coaching baseball, and if you have family support, you find time to do it,” says Rogers. “I’ve been fortunate to have good help on the farm. That has allowed me to spend time in coaching.”

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A Passion For Coaching And Ag He also spends time serving the agricultural community. Rogers has chaired an advisory board for the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center. He’s on an advisory board for Virginia Agricultural Leaders Obtaining Results (VALOR) and served on an advisory board for groundwater management in eastern Virginia. He served on the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors while president of the Virginia Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

He has been a director of the Peanut Growers Cooperative Marketing A s s o c i a t i o n , t h e Vi r g i n i a Cro p Improvement Association, the Virginia Cotton Board, the Virginia Corn Board, the Virginia Corn Growers Association, the Colonial Agricultural Education Foundation and the Virginia Agribusiness Council. He also took part in leadership programs offered by the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute.

Always A Family Affair Rogers says he has matured as a farmer and business owner by serving on many boards and organizations. He appreciates his family for keeping the farm running during his absences.

“My professional goals are more than the bottom line,” he says. He keeps his farm profitable, but says, “I am guided by my passion to be a role model as a father, coach and mentor, and to give back to the field of agriculture. My wife Pam and I have incorporated this passion into our lifestyles.”

Pam grew up in a military family.

Paul and Pam are active in Rocky Hock United Methodist Church. Pam was a teacher when she met Paul. She left teaching for several years and worked beside him driving tractors, trucks and picking peanuts. In 1987, she went back and taught for 25 years before retiring.

She also served as Tidewater Academy’s business manager and cheerleading coach. Today, she essentially works as the farm’s chief financial officer. She has kept books for the farm since 1980.

Paul and Pam have two adult children. Their son Paul “Little Paul” Rogers, III returned to the farm in 1997 after graduating from Old Dominion University, and in 2005 became a partner in Rogers Farms. Paul, III handles crop marketing, serves on a number of agricultural organizations and has also been a baseball and basketball coach.

His wife Dawn is a stay-at-home mom to their daughter and two sons.

Making the transition to include his son in management of the farm was not easy, according to Paul, Jr., mainly because he experienced no transition period after his father died, so it became more of a trial and error process with his son.

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A Role Model For Others Paul and Pam have a daughter, Sharon. An athletic training expert, Sharon patented a weight monitoring system for athletes and works as an associate professor in sports medicine and athletic training at East Carolina University. Her husband Brian is a special agent with the Virginia State Police, and they have one daughter.

Bobby Grisso, associate director of Virginia Cooperative Extension, coordinates the Farmer of the Year awards in Virginia. Rogers was nominated for the honor by Michael Parrish, a senior Extension agent in Dinwiddie, Virginia.

Parrish admires Rogers for being a great role model for other farmers, and he appreciates how Rogers has included his son as a partner in running the farm.

As the Virginia winner of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo award, Rogers received a $2,500 cash award and an expense paid trip to the Sunbelt Expo from Swisher International of Jacksonville, Florida. a $500 gift certificate from Southern States cooperative and a Columbia vest from Ivey’s Outdoor and Farm Supply.

Lonnie Fortner’s Peanut Production:

Lonnie Fortner Mississippi Farmer of the Year Lonnie Fortner of Port Gibson, Mississippi, left his career as a county executive director with the USDA Farm Service Agency to become a farmer. He started as a farm manager and later was made a partner in Rock Lake Planting Company. He recently branched out on his own as owner and operator of Bayou Pierre Farms. He’s now successfully growing peanuts, cotton, corn and soybeans.

Fortner farms about 3,600 acres of rented land. His per-acre yields last year were 1,078 pounds of cotton lint from 1,400 acres, 4,798 pounds of peanuts from 400 acres, 187 bushels of corn from 600 acres and 45 bushels of soybeans from 1,200 acres.

He grows cotton in 38-inch single rows, but plants peanuts, corn and soybeans on twin rows. “That allows us to farm with one set of planting equipment,” he says. “Cotton does better in wide rows, but peanuts and grain crops 18 /

• • •

tend to do better in narrow rows.”

Fortner estimates that twin rows increase corn yields by 10-15 bushels per acre. Twin rows help soybeans reduce weed competition by shading row middles. He believes twin row peanuts produce 500 to 600 more pounds per acre.

First Peanuts For His Area Among farmers in his part of west central Mississippi, Fortner is considered to be a longtime peanut grower. “We were one of the first peanut growers in this area,” he says.

Fortner sells peanuts on contract to the Golden Peanut and Tree Nuts company.

He markets cotton using the split pool of the Staple Cotton Cooperative Association. “I price half of my expected production and the remainder is priced

by Staple,” he explains.

Feed mills and a local ethanol plant buy his corn. He prices a third of his expected production prior to planting.

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•

400 acres of peanuts planted in twin rows Yield of 4,798 pounds per acre One of the first peanut farmers in west central Mississippi Uses RTK to help with more precise digging

After planting, he prices another third, then prices the remainder as a clear picture of final production comes into focus.

He stores corn on the farm and delivers it on January-February-March (JFM) contracts. Fortner says he hopes to upgrade his grain storage facilities and expand the overall grain storage capacity on his farm.

He sells soybeans through Bunge, with a third of expected production priced at or before planting. “Soybeans are generally delivered at harvest, but if there is an advantage, I’ll store them and deliver them in January,” he says.

Precision And Conservation Methods At times in the past, he has grown sesame, wheat and grain sorghum. He has used strip tillage and cover crops for many years. He says his crop rotation improves soil health while conserving moisture. He also uses variable rate ferPE ANUTGROWER .COM

tilizer application.

His cover crop of choice is cereal rye.

Burrower bugs are a risk when using strip tillage and cover crops prior to planting peanuts; However Fortner has not yet had to contend with these pests.

Fortner has been using precision satellite navigation or RTK since the 2006 growing season. “This really pays off in planting and digging peanuts,” he says.

“We learned after Hurricane Katrina that it can be hard to find the peanut rows after the wind blew the plants down, and RTK helps us to find those rows when we’re digging our peanuts.”

He has been using strip tillage since 2005. His primary strip tillage implement is a 12-row Orthman 1tRIPr (pronounced one tripper). It subsoils under each row and Fortner says it creates an ideal seedbed in a single pass. “We are better off using strip tillage on our silt loam soils that can get sticky when wet,” he adds.

Recently, he has tweaked his strip till planting system to cope with pigweeds.

“We still plant a rye cover crop, but we sometimes till it up to allow us to incorporate a ‘yellow’ residual herbicide to help control the pigweeds,” he explains.

Primary Challenges One of his biggest challenges has been crop damage from wild hogs and deer.

He has invested in electric fencing to help protect some of his crops from these four-legged pests.

Soil conservation and environmental protection are important for Fortner.

“Soil erosion is a constant threat, so we’re working on our conservation practices and moving to install grassed waterways,” he says. “For instance, we’ve developed our own system of using drop pipes and plastic culverts to help manage water on the land we farm.”

Fortner grew up on a family farm in Webster County, Mississippi. His father, Wallace Fortner, is now semi-retired, but he still does construction work on the side, and he helps Lonnie on the farm.

“He likes to plant cotton and help with harvesting by running the combine,.”

him a partner. Then, in 2009, he was named managing partner. “I was blessed to have them as mentors,” he says. “And I’ve been blessed to produce good crops during some tough years.”

When this partnership dissolved, Lonnie and his wife Karen formed Bayou Pierre Farms. Karen has been a kindergarten and first grade teacher.

She became certified in special education and teaches special needs children at Warren Central Junior High School in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Since 2016, she has been a board member of Claiborne County Farm Bureau and has served as vice chair of its Women’s Committee.

Lonnie is active in Claiborne County Farm Bureau and serves as its vice president. He’s also a board member for a local farm cooperative. He’s vice president and serves on the board of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association.

He chairs Mississippi’s Peanut Promotion Board. He has been a member of the Mississippi Farm Bureau board and served on state Farm Bureau committees.

He is Mississippi’s alternate member on the National Peanut Board and served as a voting delegate and on peanut advisory committees of American Farm Bureau.

“Karen is my biggest supporter,” says Lonnie. “She took care of our kids while I took care of the farm. Now she is a partner on our farm.”

Lonnie and Karen have two teenage

children, daughter Beth and son Lee. Both have been active on mission trips, in a children’s ministry and a Farm Bureau-sponsored safety camp.

A Different Start Steve Martin, associate director with Mississippi State University Extension, coordinates the Farmer of the Year award in the state. Fortner was nominated by Sherry Surrette with the Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center.

Surrette admires how Fortner entered farming by first working for a large farming company and then operating his own farm. “He has a diverse operation, uses new technology, and he works well with Extension,” says Surrette.

As the Mississippi winner, Fortner received $2,500 cash and a trip to the Sunbelt Expo from Swisher International of Jacksonville, Florida, a $500 gift certificate from the Southern States cooperative and a Columbia vest from Ivey’s Outdoor and Farm Supply.

Tied For First Both Virginia and Mississippi have had three overall winners of the Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Farmer of the Year award. The overall winner for 2018 was South Carolina beef cattle producer Kevin Yon. PG Information courtesy Sunbelt Ag Expo.

The Benefit Of Good Mentors Fortner credits his partners in Rock Lake Planting Company, James “Joc” Carpenter and Emile Guedon, for getting his start. He started farming for them in 1996, and in 2006 they made T WIT TER : @PE ANUTGROWER

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NOVEMBER 2018 • THE PE ANUT GROWER /

A Look At APRES’ 50th Anniversary The theme of the meeting, ‘Celebrating The Past; Inspiring Our Future,’ was fitting for this event.

By Amanda Huber

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merican Peanut Research and Education Society meetings are always enjoyable and filled with opportunities to learn more about peanuts. For the 50th Anniversary meeting, two events stood out as particularly interesting and meaningful to me.

400 Years Of Peanut History The first was a planned special event for the opening evening to visit Chippokes Plantation State Park. After a ferry ride across the James River from historic Jamestown, then a short bus ride through beautiful Surry County, we came upon Chippokes Plantation, one of the oldest continually farmed plantations in the country.

Chippokes has been a working farm since 1619 and the farming of its fields, including planting peanuts, is part of the charter of the state park.

Additionally, the park has an agricultural museum on the grounds. The earliest peanut planting and harvesting equipment is on display.

Next year, Chippokes will celebrate its 400th anniversary. It’s pretty awesome to be standing on ground that has had peanuts planted on it for hundreds of years. Seeing the labor-intensive ways they farmed, but still knowing they got it done, was interesting. If you have a chance, visit Chippokes Plantation’s historic grounds to celebrate this upcoming milestone.

50 Years Of Peanut Research The second event occurred at the APRES banquet. Current APRES President, Pete Dotray, a Texas A&M University Extension weed specialist and never one to be shy with the microphone, served as the Master of Ceremonies. Given that it was the fiftieth anniversary of APRES and wanting to pay homage to the truly great stalwarts of our industry, Dr. Dotray did several crowd-involved activities that turned out to be awe inspiring. First, he asked past presidents of APRES to stand and then return to their seat. Then it was for all Fellows to stand and then various award winners.

Finally, Dr. Dotray asked for all the members of APRES to stand. He then asked for those people that had been members for less than five years to sit down. This group collected most 20 /

THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

of the graduate students, but very few others. Then he asked for those that had been members of APRES less than 10 years to sit down. This collected a few more folks such as industry members and beginning researchers. By five-year increments, Dotray continued to ask folks to sit down based on their years of membership.

Somewhere about the 20-year mark, I realized quite a few folks had sat down, but I was still standing. For the last couple of rounds I was doing the math in my head. I knew that I have now been with Peanut Grower magazine for 20 years, and I started with the Florida Peanut Producers Association in 1992, but there were a few years in between that I was not in the industry. When Dr. Dotray called for those who had been in the industry 25 years, I sat down — it’s somewhere between 20 and 25.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND RECREATION

APRES’ Legacy

Two Industry Icons Continuing with the exercise, Dotray called for 30 years, 35, 40, 45.

Many of our greatest and most important researchers of the last 20 to 40 years were still standing until these numbers were called. After 45 was called, the only ones left had been members of APRES all 50 years. Two people were standing — The University of Georgia’s E. Jay Williams and Texas A&M’s Charles Simpson.

The last time I saw Jay Williams, an Extension engineer, out in the field, was probably the early 2000s. He was demonstrating using a pressure washer with a turbo nozzle to blast away the outer layer of peanut hulls collected in a wire basket as an inexpensive, quick, simple alternative to blasters that used glass beads, water and compressed air. The same process was demonstrated on the Georgia Peanut Tour this past September.

Texas A&M AgriLife Research emeritus Charles Simpson’s contributions to the peanut industry are mentioned often in plant breeding talks or at seed summits. Simpson’s career was spent as a peanut germplasm explorer and the wild species he collected throughout the world continue to be researched today for specific traits that could improve current peanut varieties. He helped move peanut breeding forward towards more advanced techniques and has many registered peanut varieties to his credit. PG

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A look at the past 50 years of everything peanut, including the history of the American Peanut Research and Education Society, plus histories of both the peanut industry and peanut research covered the “Celebrating Our Past” portion of the meeting. The next part was “Inspiring Our Future,” where both researchers and industry members talked about advances in engineering, food science, agronomy, pest management and peanut breeding.

Through 50 years of work, study, research, learning and accomplishments around one of the most important and beloved crops: the peanut, APRES has helped make the industry what it is today.

Cutting-Edge Research Corley Holbrook, supervisory research geneticist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service, has been a member of APRES for more than 30 years and is a past-president. “I am a member of other scientific societies, but none are as important to me as APRES,” he says. “My research career has been greatly enhanced through my association with APRES.” Holbrook says the most important function of APRES is the dissemination of cutting-edge research results from all relevant scientific disciplines.

“APRES achieves this through its publications and meetings, and Peanut Science is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is also managed and published by APRES.” Holbrook says he publishes much of his plant breeding and genetic research in this journal.

“By studying each issue, I am able to stay informed on research advances in other scientific disciplines,” he says. “During my career, APRES has also published several excellent books that I frequently use.”

Holbrook says he never misses an APRES annual meeting and, in addition to being able to attend numerous excellent presentations on all facets of peanut research, it is an excellent opportunity to interact with other peanut researchers from throughout the world.

Meeting The Challenge “The American Peanut Research and Education Society, over the course of its 50 years, has been the one place where all members of the peanut domain (academia, government and industry) can come together and see the whole process from seed to consumption in one place,” says Rick Brandenburg, North Carolina State University Extension specialist in entomology and plant pathology.

“This has kept us all focused on the tasks at hand, giving us a sense of the bigger picture and producing a large group that all pulls on the rope in the same direction.”

As new challenges continue to emerge and support for agriculture and agriculture research slowly erodes, Brandenburg says it has helped foster collaborative projects that otherwise would not have happened and helps members address those challenges and continue the strong support of a sound peanut industry.

Whatever issues confront the peanut industry, from field to table, the American Peanut Research and Education Society is going strong and collaborating on new and creative solutions. PG NOVEMBER 2018 • THE PE ANUT GROWER /

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Conservation Media Library This new resource from the Soil and Water Conservation Society offers how-to guides for implementing management practices.

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f you are looking to know more about the latest techniques for preserving water quality and reducing soil loss, there is now a onestop resource for that information.

The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) recently unveiled the Conservation Media Library, a comprehensive online collection of instructional videos, slide shows, graphics, fact sheets and other materials designed to help farmers research, plan and install different types of soil and water conservation systems.

“With growing emphasis on reducSTATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication Title: Peanut Grower 2. Publication Number: 1042-9379 3. Filing Date: 9/16/18 4. Issue Frequency: Jan - July & Dec 5. Number of Issues: 8x/year 6. Annual Subscription Price: Free to qualified subscribers 7&8. Mailing Address of Known Office/Headquarters: 6515 Goodman Road, Box 360, Olive Branch, MS 38654 Contact Person: Kathy Killingsworth (901-767-4020) 9. Publisher: Lia Guthrie, 7100 Black Bart Trail, Redwood Valley, CA 95470 Editor: Amanda Huber, 11490 NE 105th St, Archer, FL 32618 10. Owners: Cornelia Guthrie, 7100 Black Bart Trail, Redwood Valley, CA 95470; Dr. David Scott Guthrie,Sr., 7100 Black Bart Trail, Redwood Valley, CA 95470; Morris Ike Lamensdorf, 17 S. Third St., Rolling Fork, MS 39159; Mary Jane Lamensdorf, 17 S. Third St., Rolling Fork, MS 39159 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees and Other Security Holders Owning/Holding 1% or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: None 12. Tax Status: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: July 2018 15.a. Total Number of Copies (net press run): (Average No. Copies each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 9,571 (No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 9,547) 15.b.(1) Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 5,729) (No. Copies of Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date - 5,758) 15.c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 5,729) (No. Copies of Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date - 5,758) 15.d.(1) Outside County Nonrequested Copies: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 3,607) (No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 3,576) 15.d.(4) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 31) (No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 0) 15.e. Total Nonrequested Distribution: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 3,638) (No Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 3,576) 15.f. Total Distribution: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 9,367) (No Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 9,334) 15.g. Copies Not Distributed: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 204) (No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 213) 15.h. Total: (Average No. copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months - 9,571) (No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date - 9,547) 15.i. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months – 61.2%) (No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date – 61.7%) 18. I certify that all information furnished above is true and complete.

Lia Guthrie, Publisher

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ing the impact of nutrient loss on water supplies, there is tremendous demand among growers, crop consultants and conservation professionals for practical information on how they can accomplish this goal,” explains SWCS CEO Clare Lindahl. “The Conservation Media Library meets this need in a format that’s educational and user-friendly.”

Free Access And Downloads The content and website design for the media library were created by SWCS. Funding for the project came from a $75,000 Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, with in-kind contributions of more than $80,000 from the Conservation Districts of Iowa and SWCS. All materials in the library can be accessed and downloaded free-of-charge.

The library focuses on four conservation practices: cover crops, drainage water management, saturated buffers and prairie strips. Although geared toward

THE PE ANUT GROWER • NOVEMBER 2018

the Midwest, producers in other areas may find the information useful as well.

Catherine DeLong, who led the library project for SWCS, says, “The resource materials are heavy on video and photos, enabling farmers and landowners to readily visualize how the planning, installation, finished product and results for these systems would look in their own fields. This is truly a pragmatic, hands-on, how-to guide for protecting soil and water resources.”

Technical guidance and support for the Conservation Media Library came from NRCS, university researchers, agribusiness and watershed consultants.

With more than 3,000 members around the world, the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization that serves as an advocate for conservation professionals and for science-based conservation practice, programs and policy.

You can follow SWCS on Facebook at www.facebook.com/soilandwaterconservation, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/swcsnews and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/swcsnews/. PG To find the Conservation Media Library, go to www.swcs.org/resources/conservation-media-library/ PE ANUTGROWER .COM

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