The Farm Press Peanut Profitability Awards is entering its ninth year, having honored eight classes of winners from throughout the Southeast, Virginia-Carolina and Southwest. Since the program’s inception in 2000, the Peanut Profitability Awards have honored 24 deserving winners.

Since the inception of the Peanut Profitability Awards, producers have experienced historic and monumental changes, going from a government quota program to a more market-oriented approach. One of the aims of Peanut Profitability has been to recognize growers who have shown amazing adaptability in the face of such changes, and who have continued to produce profitable peanut crops.

The awards are based on production efficiency, honoring peanut farmers who produce the highest yields at the lowest cost per acre. Awards are presented to growers from the Southeast Region, including Alabama, Georgia and Florida; the Virginia-Carolina Region, including Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina; and the Southwest Region, including Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

The winning nominations for the 2008 awards will be based on production efficiency during the 2007 growing season. Winners of the 2008 awards will receive an expenses-paid trip for two to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference in Panama City, Fla., set for July 2008. They also will receive limited-edition signed and numbered prints from noted watercolor artist Jack DeLoney.

In addition, the winners are featured in special Peanut Profitability issues of Southeast Farm Press and Southwest Farm Press.

Marshall Lamb, research leader with the National Peanut Research Laboratory in Dawson, Ga., serves as Program Advisor. Lamb, who was instrumental in the creation of the awards program, has designed a nomination form used to determine production efficiency.

"While achieving consistently high yields and grades is important, it's only part of the equation to maximizing profits. The elements of production cost and price are equally important factors," says Lamb.

The grower nomination form for the Peanut Profitability Award is very extensive and considers both fixed and variable costs.

The awards program is based on a producer's entire peanut operation, not small plots in select fields. Critical factors include yields, costs and marketing management for the entire farm.

Assisting with the awards program is an Advisory Board comprised of Extension peanut specialists, county agents, economists and commodity group officials from the major peanut-producing states. They help to distribute nomination forms within their respective states and educate potential nominees about the program.

Farm Press editors, working with Lamb, select the regional winners from the pool of state nominees. Members of the Advisory Board, along with Lamb, are charged with periodically reviewing the awards program to insure consistency.

Growers may submit nomination forms directly to the National Peanut Research Laboratory or to the county Extension agent, peanut specialist or economist. The deadline for all nominations is April 15, 2008.

Growers can access the nomination form via the Internet at southeastfarmpress.com and southwestfarmpress.com. In addition, it can be linked from various commodity group websites. To receive a hard copy of the form, call Farm Press headquarters at (662) 624-8503 or contact any member of the Advisory Board.

A second major component of the Peanut Profitability Program is education. Southeast Farm Press and Southwest Farm Press accomplished this in the past year by publishing numerous articles on peanut production efficiency. It also is our hope that farmers from throughout the Peanut Belt will learn from the production practices of growers who receive the award.

Farm Press will continue to publish articles in the coming year focusing on peanut production efficiency. Each article will bear the Peanut Profitability Program logo so readers can recognize it easily.

Peanut Profitability’s education component also has funded internships in the past three years to deserving college students majoring in agricultural communications.

The 2008 Peanut Profitability Award Program Officials and Advisory Board

Program Coordinator

Paul L. Hollis, Editor, Southeast Farm Press 166 North Gay Street P.O. Box 1415 Auburn, AL 36831-1415 (334) 826-7451

Program Advisor

Marshall Lamb, Research Leader USDA National Peanut Research Laboratory 1011 Forester Drive Dawson, GA 31740 (229) 995-7417

Advisory Board

Southeast

Nathan B. Smith, Agricultural Economist University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service Rural Development Center 15 RDC Road P.O. Box 1209 Tifton, GA 31794 (229) 386-3512

John Beasley, Agronomist University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service Rural Development Center 15 RDC Road P.O. Box 1209 Tifton, GA 31793 (229) 386-3430

Tim Hewitt, Agricultural Economist University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service NFREC 3925 Highway 71 Marianna, FL 32446 (850) 482-9904

Dallas Hartzog, Agronomist Alabama Cooperative Extension System Wiregrass Research & Extension Station Highway 134 East P.O. Box 217 Headland, AL 36345 (334) 693-2010

Virginia-Carolina

David Jordan, Crop Science Extension Specialist North Carolina State University 4207 Williams Hall Box 7620 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695 (919) 515-4068

Bob Sutter North Carolina Peanut Growers Association P.O. Box 8 Nashville, NC 27856-0008 (252) 459-5060

Joel Faircloth, Agronomist Virginia Tech Tidewater Ag Research and Extension Center 6321 Holland Road Suffolk, VA 23437 (757) 657-6450

Russell Schools Virginia Peanut Growers Association 103 Triangle Court P.O. Box 356 Capron, VA 23829 (804) 658-4573

Jay Chapin, Extension Peanut Specialist Edisto Research and Education Center 64 Research Road Blackville, S.C. 29817 (803) 284-3343

Southwest

Robbie Blount Southwest Texas Peanut Growers Association P.O. Box 252 Seminole, TX 79360 (915) 758-2050

Todd Baughman, Extension Specialist Texas A&M University P.O. Box 2159 Vernon, TX 76385 (940) 535-1484

Shelly Nutt Texas Peanut Producers Association 4205 North Interstate 27 Lubbock, TX 79403 (806) 687-6363

Thank you to the Sponsors

Click to view past winners

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

The 2008 Winners will be presented at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference in July.

Click to view how winners are determined and to print an application.