TIFTON, Georgia – Legislative issues, peanut promotions and production research were the hot topics addressed during the Sixth Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference held July 18-20 in Panama City Beach, Fla. The three-day conference provided the 500 farmers and industry representatives in attendance with the latest knowledge on legislative activities in Washington, D.C.

One highlight of the conference put farmers in the hot seat as they were asked questions related to their farm production. The answers from the audience were analyzed and then appeared in a chart on the big screen for everyone to see. Of course, the answers revealed the difference in acreage of the peanut farmers in the audience and the costs per acre that farmers are spending on fungicides and herbicides. The answers from the audience were also compared to the Southeast Peanut Representative Farms, which is actual farm data obtained by the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness from farms in Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Next the entire audience, from farmers to industry representatives, was able to participate in the interactive consumer type question category. This series of questions compared peanut farmers and industry representatives to the general public when it came to how many times they eat out a week, the percentage that are diabetic or have high blood pressure and tested the group on their knowledge of peanuts and peanut butter.

The conference also highlighted legislative issues, domestic and export promotional activities regarding peanuts, buying and selling on eBay, as well as production issues concerning new and emerging weed problems, economics and marketing options, and peanut production indexes.

In addition to the conference program, Valent U.S.A. Corporation, a crop protection company, awarded four peanut agronomists with the Valor Award for their many contributions to the Southeast peanut growing area and for their tireless efforts and dedication to peanut growers. The honorees are John Beasley and John Baldwin with the University of Georgia, Dallas Hartzog, Auburn University, and Ben Whitty, University of Florida. Valor is defined by Webster’s dictionary, “strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness; personal bravery.”

During the conference, winners of the 2004 Farm Press Peanut Profitability Awards were recognized at an awards breakfast. Winners of the 2004 Farm Press Peanut Profitability Awards combined a year of record or near-record yields with innovative and efficient production systems to distinguish themselves among their peers.

Each of the winners represents one of the three major U.S. peanut production regions - the Southwest Region, the Southeast Region and the Virginia-Carolina Region. Farm Press established the awards program in cooperation with the Southern Peanut Growers Conference and the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation.

This year’s winners include: Southwest Region – Jimbo Grissom, Gaines County, Texas; Southeast Region – Sauls Partnership, Randolph County, Ga.; Virginia-Carolina Region – Joseph H. Ward, Chowan County, S.C.

One of the common traits among this year’s Peanut Profitability winners, says Marshall Lamb, advisor to the program and economist with the National Peanut Research Laboratory, is that they were not afraid to spend the money required to make good yields, which ultimately benefited their bottom line. “We’ve had a couple of winners in the past that held back on inputs and sacrificed yields in the process. But that’s not true with this year’s group.”

The 2004 honorees also practiced good crop rotation with their peanuts, he adds. “Another key to efficiency for these growers was detailed management. Their management skills translated into extremely good yields over a large amount of peanut acreage.”