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