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 Extension
Changes Peanut Producers' Mind-Set
April
11, 2002---It wasn't so many years ago that by the middle of
April, farmers in the Wiregrass were crisscrossing their fields
planting peanuts. These days, Wiregrass farmers are still hard at
work during April, but one thing they are not doing is planting
peanuts.
Dallas Hartzog,
Extension peanut agronomist at the Wiregrass Regional Extension and
Research Center, says that the change in planting time can be traced
to Extension's efforts to help farmers battle tomato spotted wilt
virus (TSWV) in peanuts.
"A
multidisciplinary Extension team has been working for the past
several years to help the state's peanut growers battle TSWV,"
says Hartzog. "TSWV is a devastating disease that can wipe out
a field of peanut plants or can ruin a farmer's budget buying
chemical treatments to battle the disease."
Extension professionals
realized that, in an effort to survive, the state's peanut growers
were looking for ways to optimize their production management
programs for peanuts. Poor weather and low commodity prices had
battered many growers' financial situations, and they needed a
cost-effective way to battle TSWV.
Moving the planting
start date from mid-April to early May was one portion of the
integrated approach advocated by Extension. Moving the planting date
helps young peanut plants avoid damage from insects called thrips.
Thrips are considered the primary way TSWV is spread.
"We had to do
something to help them get the TSWV problem under control,"
says Jimmy Jones, Henry County Extension agent. "We were
looking for ways to keep them one step ahead of the problem."
Other portions of the
plan include selecting resistant peanut cultivars, establishing a
good plant population of at least four plants per foot of row,
increasing plantings of strip-till and twin row peanuts, and using
phorate for thrips control. The adoption of these practices has had
dramatic and immediate effects on the incidence of TSWV and
increased yields.
Hartzog says growers
increased plantings of resistant cultivars to 95 percent of the
197,000 acres planted in 2001. They also increased seeding rates to
acquire at least four plants per foot of row plant population on
over 80 percent of the planted acreage.
Finally, he notes that
growers have made a conscious effort to avoid unusually early
planting. The majority of peanut acreage in 2001 was planted from
May 1 to May 25 to avoid heavy thrips damage.
As a result of growers
changing some basic practices, Hartzog says TSWV was reduced to less
than 1 percent infection in 2001 as compared to 30 percent in 1997.
Research indicates that this level of TSWV reduction in Alabama
peanuts increased yields 400 to 500 pounds per acre, providing
growers an estimated $13.5 million in increased income.
In this time of new
technologies, Hartzog says the effective use of some of the most
tried and true Extension methods was the real key in getting farmers
to change their ways.
He says tours of on-farm
demonstrations and research trials conducted on peanuts in the
Wiregrass counties over the last several seasons helped make growers
aware of the recommended integrated approach to managing this major
peanut pest.
Source: Dallas Hartzog,
Extension Peanut Agronomist, Wiregrass Regional Extension and
Research Center, Headland, Ala. (334) 693-2010
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