TIFTON, Ga. (WALB) — While Georgia comfortably leads the nation in peanut production, maintaining that dominance this season requires farmers to manage delayed field schedules, late-season plant disease, and international trade pressures.

The 2026 planting season got off to a difficult start. According to Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension Peanut Agronomist, a wet May delayed planting for roughly half of the state’s peanut crop.

Despite those early setbacks, sporadic summer rains have turned the crop’s outlook around.

“The crop has improved dramatically over the last month and a half,” Monfort said. “Overall as an average, we look pretty good night now.”

For South Georgia farmers, field yields are only one part of the financial equation. Because the domestic supply exceeds local demand, Georgia growers rely heavily on international trade to maintain stable, profitable prices.

“We do export about 25 to 28% of our crop. We would love to be able to continue to move that crop from the U.S. to our exporters because that takes away from the carryover that we have from year to year,” he said. “Right now, I think overall the prices have eased up. They have not gotten to where growers would like to see them, which I think for all crops we would like to see them increase a little bit more so we can pay our return to our investment.”

As harvest officially begins in mid-September, a unique climate challenge is emerging. Because half of the crop was planted late due to the wet spring, those late-season plants still actively need rain and warm temperatures to mature properly.

“We’re caught into a unique situation,” Monfort said. “You can’t just say, ‘Hey, we want it to be dry,’ in order to get harvest done. We know that we are going to have to work around some rain, we would like to work around some rain because that way we ensure that we’re getting what we need for the later crop to mature it out so we can make a good average crop.”

Monfort urges growers to remain timely with fungicide applications to protect their crops through the home stretch.

Research Field Day Aims to Boost Margins

To help growers navigate these operational and economic hurdles, the Georgia Cotton Commission, the Georgia Peanut Commission, and the UGA Extension teams are hosting a joint Cotton and Peanut Research Field Day on Wednesday, Sept. 2, in Tifton.

The free public event will begin at 8:00 a.m. at the UGA Lang Farm on 230 Rigdon Aultman Road, where growers can view active field trials and learn about new crop varieties, weed control, and efficient field practices.

Following the morning field tours, attendees will transition to the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center for lunch and an educational program. While the event is free, attendees are encouraged to RSVP to Mallory Marchant at [email protected] or call 229-386-3366 to provide an accurate headcount for lunch.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X. For more south Georgia news, download the WALB News app and add WALB as a preferred source on Google.

Copyright 2026 WALB. All rights reserved.