Drought: Georgia issues special peanut advisory

The University of Georgia Peanut Team has just released a special white paper focusing on this spring's drought and delayed planting season. Here's a link to the report in PDF format:

Peanut Pointers: Special Drought Edition

The report covers a full range of topics, including:

• Crop insurance
• Tillage
• Agronomics
• Fertility
• Disease Management
  
• Weed Management
• Insect Management

"We are currently experiencing one of the most extreme drought situations in south Georgia in over five decades," the report opens. "We are already approximately 12 inches below normal in rainfall in most of our peanut producing area for the first five months of the year. These severe conditions have lead to numerous uncertainties in regards to peanut production decisions."

John Beasley, Georgia Extension Peanut Specialist, said that Extension personnel tried to bring together all of the questions being asked right now about dealing with the drought, which NOAA classifies as "extreme" or "severe" across a good deal of the peanut production areas of Georgia, as well as production areas in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. A lesser "stage 1" drought classification also was applied late this week to parts of South Carolina and northeast Louisiana.

A similar report has been issued by the UGa Cotton Team. If you missed that report, click here to download a copy.