The peanut crop in Georgia is in considerably better shape as of July 17 due to a week of widely scattered showers. By no means are we out of the woods, however. Much of the southwest and south central areas of the Georgia peanut belt received anywhere from 1 to 7 inches durng the past week. The eastern part of the peanut belt, which was the driest area, received an inch or less. This helped but is still not near enough for the peanut plant to continue its pegging and pod fill stages.
Most producers are back in the field applying fungicides and herbicides.
Some foliage feeding insects have moved out of drought affected corn into peanut fields. Insecticide applications may be necessary if insect populations increase. This represents about 5 percent of the total farmgate value of Georgia agriculture. This also likely translates into a 25 percent drop in net farm income, although that will be considerably cushioned by crop insurance. The effect is large because input costs will not drop much since some crop is still there and because feed costs will rise in the lifestock sector.