MS peanut crop looks good near harvest end

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The majority of Mississippi’s peanut crop is out of the ground and looking good, with recent rain across the state in late October slowing harvest progress.

Brendan Zurweller, peanut specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said harvest was about 75% complete by the last week of October.

“Overall, it’s looking like we will have a slightly above-average crop across the state,” Zurweller said. “The greatest risk with rain this late in the season is the soils don’t dry very fast, so you never know how much longer you will be able to dig peanuts.”

Yields and quality depended largely on how much rain the crop got early in the year.

“We were very wet early in the season, and that caused some fields to have to be replanted,” he said. “The rains also delayed planting, as the majority of our acres were planted in the latter half of May.

“The earliest peanuts were planted the latter half of April and already harvested,” Zurweller said. “This accounted for about 20% of the total crop.”

After heavy spring rains caused the late and slow start of the growing season, the weather became hot and dry in late summer.

“Dry and hot weather late in the season typically slows down crop development and maturation,” he said. “Places that were planted later and had extended dry spells late in the season had fewer pods form and reduced yields.”

Disease is always an issue each year for peanuts. Leaf spot showed up at normal levels and white mold hurt a few fields in the southern half of the state. Southern blight presented above average pressure in some fields, helped along by warm, dry weather in September.

Malcolm Broome, executive director of the Mississippi Peanut Growers Association, said the crop is averaging 4,000-6,000 pounds per acre, which is between average to a little above average for the state.

“Mississippi growers planted 19,807 acres, down from the 25,000 acres they planned to plant,” Broome said. “This puts acres this year about the same as 2024, but they would have been up except for rain that prevented planting.”

The majority of the peanut acres are in the southeastern part of the state and along the Highway 82 corridor. Peanuts are typically cultivated in 30 counties across the state.

Broome said peanuts are sold by the ton. Spring contract prices averaged $500 per ton this year, which is close to what it was in 2024.