Achieving high yields and grades are only part of the equation for efficient, long-term sustainable peanut production.
The Farm Press Peanut Efficiency Award is based on production efficiency, honoring growers who produce the highest yields by using inputs wisely. The award is based on a producer’s entire peanut operation and not on individual farms or small plots.
A second major component of the Peanut Efficiency Award is education. Southeast Farm Press, Delta Farm Press and Southwest Farm Press support the education element by publishing articles throughout the year focusing on peanut production efficiency.
Awards are presented to growers from the Lower Southeast, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida; the Upper Southeast, including Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina; the Southwest, including Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico; and the Delta, including Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri.
“The elements of production cost and price are equally important factors in our evaluation of nominees. Marketing expertise definitely has given an edge to recent winners of the award,” says Marshall Lamb, research director for the National Peanut Research Laboratory and primary advisor of the PEA program.
Please submit nomination forms directly to the National Peanut Research Laboratory. The deadline for all nominations is April 15, 2026. The nomination form is online at www.farmprogress.com/peanuts. To receive a hard copy of the form or if a grower has questions, call Brad Haire at 229-809-0974.
The awards program has honored 26 classes of winners from the U.S. peanut belt. Since the program’s beginning in 2000, the Peanut Efficiency Awards have honored over 78 deserving growers and farms. The awards program began with the Southern Peanut Growers Conference in conjunction with the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation and the two have grown together over the years.
Winners of the 2026 awards will receive an expense-paid trip for two to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, July 21-23, at the Edgewater Beach Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida.