Britt Rowe of Riverside Farms in Florence County receives a trophy as state peanut yield champion from Brad Boozer, representing the S.C. Peanut Board, which sponsored the contest.

DATE: 3/14/2006

CONTACT: Dr. Jay Chapin, (803) 284-3343, ext. 226; jchapin@clemson.edu

WRITER: Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343, ext. 241; tlollis@clemson.edu

State peanut yield champs recognized

BLACKVILLE -- The South Carolina peanut crop in 2005 jumped in acreage but dropped a bit in per-acre yields due to some weather problems.

Many growers were hit with a late summer drought only to get heavy rainfalls during harvest, according to Jay Chapin, Clemson Extension peanut specialist. As a result statewide yields averaged about 2,800 pounds per acre, down from the 3,400 pound average for 2003 and 2004.

Some growers made good yields, however.

Britt Rowe of Riverside Farms in Lee County averaged 4,493 pounds per acre on 245.5 acres to win the State Peanut Yield Contest sponsored by the S.C. Peanut Board.

Ricky Kneece of Lexington County was the District II champion with 4,112 pounds per acre on 260.6 acres. The state is divided roughly into two districts split by Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion.

The state’s peanut crop, worth about $30 million, increased to approximately 60,000 acres in 2005, well above the 33,000 acres harvested in 2004. Chapin thinks acreage may decline slightly this year.

He reminds growers to take care of the basics if they want to make a
profit.

“You need to get more than a dollar back for each dollar you invest in the crop,” he says. That means following Extension programs for control of weeds, diseases and insects, using liquid inoculants instead of granular materials, and avoiding special nutrient supplements that have not shown an ability to increase yields in tests at Edisto Research and Education Center at Blackville.

He cautions growers against overuse of strobilurin materials for disease control.

“Use no more than two applications a year to avoid disease resistance to the chemistry,” he said.

Chapin reminds growers that more money is made or lost with digging decisions than any other aspect of peanut production. In a three-year test with the variety NCV-11 peanuts produced 90 percent of their yield during a 130-136 day window. Growers must keep checking the maturity of pods during that window, however, instead of relying solely on number of days.

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