Major advancements have been made in peanut yields over the last decade, but growers must continue to seek ways to more economically and efficiently increase yields in order to remain competitive. To help with that goal, the University of Georgia Peanut Team conducts many research trials across the state’s peanut belt, including work on real farms, university research farms, and at the Sunbelt Ag Expo Darrell Williams Research Farm at Moultrie, Georgia.
Farmers can learn more by visiting the Sunbelt Ag Expo for its annual Field Day on July 24 for a sneak peek at the research it is carrying out on behalf of University of Georgia researchers and others across the Southeast.
At the Expo farm, the UGA Peanut Team generally has trials to determine yield response and economic return for select tillage treatments, biological inoculant products, foliar fertilizers and plant growth stimulants, says Scott Monfort, UGA Extension peanut agronomist. More specifically, he conducted trials last season at the Expo to compare reduced tillage treatments, using single shank and twin shank rippers, to more common conventional tillage treatments, such as deep turning and harrowing. He used no cover crops in the trials.
“Yield in conventional tillage tended to be higher in most of the trials conducted in 2017,” he says. “However, yields in the Expo tillage trial were found to be similar across all tillage treatments.”
Additional research by Monfort at Sunbelt Expo “will assess the impact of cover crops in reduced tillage systems compared to conventional tillage. Treatments being assessed are intensive broadcast tillage (bottom plow), and two reduced tillage programs consisting of a single ripper shank, with and without a cover crop.”
“The Sunbelt Expo’s Darrell Williams Research Farm and research field day provides a great platform to showcase the research efforts of the UGA Peanut Team in answering grower concerns questions related to new products and changes in Extension recommendations,” Monfort says.
The field day kicks off at 7:15 a.m. in the RW Griffin Building with a biscuit breakfast. Trams depart for the fields at 8:00 a.m. and return before noon for lunch and door prize drawings.
The Sunbelt Ag Expo is located southeast of Moultrie, Georgia, on Georgia Highway 133. For additional information, visit sunbeltexpo.com.