Tag Archives: Peanut Production

Georgia Peanut Farmers Face 2025 Challenges: Weather, Yields & Market Outlook

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Tifton, GA |

With Georgia growing six times more peanuts that any other state in the country, keeping those farmers up to date on the latest research, technology and equipment is vital for the health of the industry as a whole. Events like the Georgia Peanut Farm Show help accomplish this by gathering all those involved under one roof.

“Number one, it’s very good information. It’s a chance for farmers to get together and rub elbows with their neighbors and friends that they may not have seen from people come from all over the state and the Southeast, but you also get to see the latest and greatest in machinery, technology, chemicals, and peanut production practices. We’ve got Scott Monfort is going to lead our production session, and we’ve got a seed session. It helps to just give us an opportunity,” says Joe Boddiford, Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

Even though the number of acres dedicated to peanuts in Georgia remain high, yields did take a major hit in 2024, thanks in large part to the unpredictable climate.

“Weather for the last two years have taken some yield from us. This past year has taken more than it has in a long time. You know, we lost some top end irrigated yields in ’23 of about a thousand pounds. This year, fifteen hundred pounds or better and across the state when you look at the state average, we didn’t move that much in ’23. We were at forty-one hundred and something. This year, we dropped down to thirty-eight fifty, and that’s the lowest we’ve been in twenty years,” says Scott Monfort, Extension Peanut Agronomist.

With that in mind, growers must now walk a fine line in 2025 between cutting costs and maximizing production.

“We know you need to make change. We know you need kind of cut back if you can, but the biggest thing is we know you need to make money. That’s the highest yields possible. And what we’re here trying to get them to understand is that it’s easy to say I’m going to cut this out, this out and this out. And that’s going to save me money, but in retrospect, every time you cut something, it’s going to affect your yield or potentially affect your control of a pest that affects your yield,” says Monfort.

The silver lining created by that drop in numbers is a potential for the prices to remain steady through these uncertain times.

“We did get lucky by not producing as much in the state of Georgia. So, that kind of helped us potentially. I’m not going to say it is, but it potentially did. If we would have yielded forty-one, forty-two hundred pounds, we know where we would be this year. It would be starting way low. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case this year and we can at least keep that price up to where we can at least pay some returns back on our investment,” says Monfort.

As for advice to growers preparing for the new year, Monfort suggests working with your local county extension and sticking with the basics.

“The main thing is don’t forget your base programs. Make sure fertility, fungicides, pest management, lyme, calcium, the things you need to do, let’s make sure we do them and we’ll be okay,” says Monfort.

By: Damon Jones

Plant Expansion Helps Peanut Industry

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DOUGLAS, GA – With the state of Georgia accounting for nearly half the nation’s peanut production, it’s important that each aspect of the industry work in harmony. Nothing exemplifies that more than the grower-owned operation Premium Peanut, which helps farmers with each step of the process.

“We are essentially a cooperative of over 350 farmers in 30 counties throughout Georgia, and we work with them to grow, harvest, and then shell peanuts,” says Karl Zimmer, President of Premium Peanuts. “We are the only shelling plant east of 75 and as peanut production and peanut growing has moved into southeast Georgia over the past 15 years, there really was a need logistically to have something close.”

This facility, which shells up to 900 tons of peanuts a day, helps save farmers time and money thanks to its convenient location right in the middle of peanut country.

“It’s extremely beneficial just from a logistical standpoint to minimize those freight costs getting the product out of the field at harvest into the buying points and from the buying points or the collection points into the shelling plant,” says Zimmer.

One of the major partners for this operation since its opening in 2015 has been SunTrust Bank, who provided both working capital and flexible financing. It’s the kind of partnership they believe is essential not just for agriculture, but to the future of the country.

“If you look at food and agriculture in the United States, it’s a significant part of our GDP and it’s a category that we are not likely to rely on a foreign source of supply. So, as we look at the next several decades, food and agriculture will be a significant part of the US domestic economy,” says Todd Southerland, Senior Vice President of SunTrust bank.

With that in mind, Premium Peanut recently expanded their operation, building a state of the art peanut oil facility, which creates more value to the product by using the entire supply.

“We are generating a lot of not edible peanuts. They’re part of the manufacturing process. I come from metals manufacturing. You need scrap there. Well, our scrap is peanuts that are too small, they’re broken, maybe they have damage to them, and we can’t sell them to the edible market. But you can absolutely crush them and produce peanut oil from them,” says Zimmer.

As for how the oil is produced, it’s really a simple process.

“You break them down into small pieces. You heat them up to release that oil. Then it’s a mechanical press, and it is really just using mechanical pressure to squeeze the oil out,” says Zimmer.

With the addition of a new operation comes an addition of new jobs as well, and with the peanut industry being so far reaching in the state, it’s not just the local community that sees the benefits from this expansion

“When you think about premium peanut, it’s had a huge impact on the greater Douglas community,” says Southerland. “It’s obviously having an impact on this particular business. It’s also helping light the way to financial well-being for hundreds of farmers that are members of the cooperative. So, indirectly, it touches literally hundreds of families in South Georgia.”

“We have over 200 employees,” says Zimmer. “So, I think that is clearly important to this county and for where we are locally. Our growers are in 30 counties throughout southern Georgia and we have 10 buying points spread out through the southern part of the state. So, I think when you look at our true economic impact to agriculture and to the peanut industry throughout the state of Georgia, it’s very significant.”

By: Damon Jones