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Jan. 25, 2022 – ATLANTA – The water footprint of peanuts has been relatively small for decades, but updated data shows the industry has improved water efficiency by nearly a third.

Newly released data reports that 3.2 gallons of water is used to produce one ounce of shelled peanuts. Water usage for major tree nuts has also improved but remains higher than peanuts. Almonds use 28.7 gallons; pistachios use 23.6 gallons; and walnuts use 26.7 gallons of water to grow a one ounce serving.*

In the latest analysis, researchers used updated and “state-level input data such as harvested area, production, yield and irrigated area,” said Dr. Mesfin Mekonnen, assistant professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama. “The use of updated and state-level data, particularly yield data, has improved the estimates.”

“Production research efforts through the National Peanut Board, state associations and the Peanut Research Foundation have led to significant improvements in yields over the past decade,” said NPB President and CEO Bob Parker. “Peanut farmers today are producing about 50% more peanuts with fewer inputs, including irrigation, than they were consistently 10 years ago.”

“Farmers are always looking to gain efficiencies in crop production,” said peanut grower, NPB Arkansas board member and Research Committee Chair Greg Baltz. “Peanut farmers have made significant investments in production research and this science has played a role in adoption of improved water use practices. We have an inherent desire for both economic and environmental security into the future.”

Peanuts are a healthy, nutritious food and are environmentally friendly, requiring significantly less water to grow compared to tree nuts. As a legume, they are nitrogen-fixing, which means they require less supplemental fertilizer and add beneficial nutrients to the soil for the next crop. In addition to using just 3.2 gallons of water to produce one ounce, peanuts are a zero-waste crop. From the roots to shells, every part is utilized throughout the planting, growing, harvesting and production process. Read more about peanuts and sustainability.

Since 2001, the National Peanut Board has allocated more than $38.5 million to production research projects including to improve water efficiency, technology and more. These advancements as well as continued collaboration and efforts across the peanut industry allow peanut growers to meet the various needs of consumers. Increased production and increased demand have led to two consecutive years of record peanut per capita consumption levels, reaching an all-time high of 7.9 pounds in 2021.

* This data presents U.S. water usage per ounce based on blue water (irrigation) for the period 2000/2016 and grey water (to assimilate applied nitrogen) for 2004/2013. The sources of the data are the California Department of Food and Agriculture; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Mekonnen, M.M. of the University of Alabama; and the United States Department of Agriculture. Limitations of the results include the quality and availability of data.

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About the National Peanut Board (NPB)The National Peanut Board represents USA peanut farmers and their families. Through research and marketing initiatives the Board is finding new ways to enhance production and increase consumer demand by promoting the great taste, nutrition and culinary versatility of USA-grown peanuts. For more information about the board, visit www.nationalpeanutboard.org.

Are you looking to grow your leadership skills and knowledge of the peanut industry? Consider applying to be a part of Class XII of the Peanut Leadership Academy. This two-year program gives peanut growers and sheller representatives in select states a unique opportunity to come together and learn more about the industry.

To be eligible for participation, candidates must derive their primary livelihood from farming and currently produce peanuts, preferably be between the ages of 22 and 45, make a commitment to the program and agree to attend all sessions except in times of illness or a family emergency, and provide a completed application.

The Peanut Leadership Academy is a cooperative effort between Syngenta Crop Protection, the American Peanut Shellers Association and grower organizations. The program began in 1998.

During the program, participants are taught how to become more effective spokespeople for the peanut industry, develop industry relationships and further grow their leadership skills. Five sessions take place throughout the 18-month class and require approximately 20 days of travel. During the sessions, activities are structured to give participants a thorough understanding of the United States peanut industry and include industry tours, meetings with industry leaders and professional development training. Each class also has one leadership session in Washington, D.C. where participants have an opportunity to visit with members of congress on issues affecting the peanut industry. 

To download a copy of the upcoming class application, click here or visit www.southernpeanutfarmers.org, Applications must be postmarked or emailed to jessie@gapeanuts.com by Oct. 1, 2021, for consideration. The first session will begin in December 2021.

In June of 2021, three Texas peanut farmers graduated from the Peanut Leadership Academy Class XII. Pictured above with TPPB Executive Director, Shelly Nutt, is Rustin Knight from Terry County, Benny Teichroeb from Gaines County and Texas’ National Peanut Board candidate, Lexi Floyd, from Terry County. 

The Peanut Leadership Academy is facilitated by the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation. According to their website, the program is a cooperative effort between grower organizations and agricultural extension. The program began in 1998 with a class of 14 peanut growers from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Today, the program includes growers from several other states, including Texas, as well as sheller representatives. 

The program aims to grow participants knowledge of the U.S. peanut industry. Over the duration of the 18-month program, growers will attend five sessions in different locations across the U.S., giving them an opportunity to learn more about grower and industry issues and new skills and technologies.

If you are a peanut grower and you would like to participate in this two-year leadership program, call, text or email Shelly Nutt for an application. 

One of TPPB’s Own is Honored

TPPB’s longtime research consultant, Bob Whitney, was awarded the Norman Borlaug award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Congratulations, Bob!

Texas Peanut Farmers Give Back

Texas’ peanut farmers donated over 32k jars of HEB peanut butter, made with high quality Texas peanuts, to food banks across the state.

Written By: Guest Columnist, JEAN LONIE, Coordinator for International Marketing, Texas Department of Agriculture

Part of our work at the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) is to help promote the outstanding products grown here in the Lone Star State – and we are always excited to get to highlight Texas peanuts (and our peanut producers!). Through initiatives like the GO TEXAN program, we can promote Texas products to consumers here in Texas and now, thanks to online shopping, across the country. What you may not know is that we also work hard to promote products like Texas peanuts to partners and consumers around the world. 

In December, TDA was able to work with TPPB to feature your products as part of an international “Chef Camp” held for culinary executives at resorts in India and Taiwan. As a lead-up to the event, coordinators visited a Texas peanut farm and worked with a retail/wholesale partner who purchases, adds value to, and sells, Texas peanuts. The participants in this program do a lot more than oversee daily menus for their multiple restaurants and food service entities; they are key purchasers of food and beverage products across multi-national resorts. During this call, Texas peanuts were introduced not only as an ingredient for meals, but also as a top-tier product for the multiple lounges and bars at the resorts, and as an ideal room drop/welcome gift for VIP guests and other special visitors. An added bonus the chefs picked up on right away was that with the ability to package products in individual serving sizes, they can easily provide these treats to guests while adhering to their resort’s COVID-19 guidelines!

Whether we are promoting your products to these high-end resorts, exploring the potential for global retail sales or finding new partners interested in importing your products in bulk, we look forward to continuing our work with TPPB to take Texas peanuts worldwide! 

Exciting things are happening for TPPB’s interns! Campbell Williams, our intern for the past year, graduated from Texas Tech with a bachelor’s in agricultural communications in December. She has done great work at TPPB – whether it was writing newsletter stories or creating social media posts, Campbell completed the task efficiently and made sure it was well done. Campbell, good luck in all of your future endeavors – we know you will do great.

With that being said, a new Marketing and Communications Intern has been hired. Hi, everyone, my name is Kylie Harlan, and I am a senior agricultural communications major at Texas Tech. A little about me – I am originally from Sherman, Texas. I did not grow up directly involved in agriculture but after joining FFA my freshman year of high school, I became interested in the industry and have not looked back. 

Through my courses at school, extracurriculars and previous jobs, I have learned a lot about agriculture, and I look forward to learning even more through this internship. 

At TPPB, I assist in the behind-the-scenes work with the newsletter, social media and other marketing/communication tasks. Feel free to email me at kylie@texaspeanutboard.com if you have a newsletter story, social media post or anything in between. I would love to chat! 

 While most of 2020 was unusual and challenging, the same can be said for the 2020 harvest. Kelton Coleman, a farmer from Lamesa, gave us an inside scoop on how his 2020 harvest went. 

“[2020 harvest] was especially challenging because we had an early freeze,” Coleman said. “That killed the peanuts, so we had to go ahead and dig everything earlier than normal, so that hurt yields and grades. This past year our yields were off probably 30 percent.” 

In 2020, Coleman planted about 120 acres of conventional Virginia, 120 acres of conventional Valencia, 1,200 acres of organic Valencia and 600 acres of organic Spanish. Out of those four types, Coleman said the organic Spanish did the best. 

“The Spanish seemed to handle the variations in temperature and weather better than the rest,” Coleman said. “…The organic Spanish yielded about 3,500 pounds, whereas the organic Valencia yielded about 2,500 pounds.”

For this upcoming planting season, Coleman said he will probably focus more on Spanish because they tend to adapt to weather and rainfall conditions better than other varieties. 

“With no rainfall [we have to irrigate more] and our irrigation water has a lot of minerals in it, and those minerals build up in the soil when there is no rainfall to leech them and Spanish tend to handle higher pH in the soil better than other varieties do.” 

Kelton, thank you for taking the time to talk to us about harvest. We would love to hear how your 2020 harvest went and we would love to see pictures, too. If you’re interested, please email kylie@texaspeanutboard.com.

 A new peanut sheller is coming to Vernon, Texas. Texas A&M AgriLife Foundation Seed, a branch of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, is in the midst of finishing the sheller, which is set to have a ribbon cutting ceremony on March 2, 2021. 

Dr. Richard Vierling, the manager of Texas Foundation Seed, said the sheller will provide multiple benefits to AgriLife and the peanut industry. 

“It will be useful in plant breeding,” Vierling said. “We are going to be able to test varieties early on for their shelling abilities. When a breeder is getting ready to release new varieties, we are going to be able to do a better job processing that seed and making sure that it is genetically pure and do a good job not damaging the seed. Lastly, it is going to be available to companies for specialty processing.”

Vierling said that identity preservation is another great benefit the sheller will provide. Food manufactures can choose to participate in identity preservation peanut production and contract with farmers to produce a specific variety. 

Vierling said this is a good opportunity for producers to participate in identity preservation production, which can end up being more profitable than just commodity production. 

“The opportunity for identity preserved production will have benefits all along the chain – from the seed supplier company, to the producer, to the food company – they can all grab benefits from identity preservation,” Vierling said. 

Overall, Vierling said the sheller will be able to be used throughout the entire life of the breeding process. He said AgriLife is now better equipped to breed for shelling and they will be able to begin looking at the processing characteristics of a variety, which will help increase efficiency across the industry and increase the number of acres in Texas. 

“So, we can start breeding for both the farmer and the peanut shellers and the food companies,” Vierling said. “So, you know, that’s big. That is going to change the way we do our breeding.” 

Acreage By Type

According to the Farm Service Agency (FSA) records from 2020, Texas planted 185,828.4 acres of peanuts for all four types. Of these types, 41% (76,056.4 acres) were Runner, 29% (54,882.2 acres) were Virginia, 16% (28,893.0 acres) were Spanish, and 14% (25,996.9 acres) were Valencia. 

The Texas Plains region was the highest producing region in the state. Plains planted 151,388.3 acres. Of those acres, 36% (54,683.7 acres) of them were Virginia, 32% (48,468.3 acres) were Runner, 17% (25,264.4 acres) were Valencia and 15% (22,972 acres) were Virginia.

The Texas Panhandle region was the second highest producing region in the state. Panhandle planted 16,519.2 acres. Of those acres, 62% (10,193.9 acres) of them were Runner, 33% (5,543.1 acres) were Spanish, 4% (588.6 acres) were Valencia and 1% (193.5 acres) were Virginia.

The South region planted 14,867.8 acres. Of those acres, 99% (14,680.3 acres) of them were Runner and 1% (187.5 acres) were Spanish. There were no Valencia or Virginia peanuts planted.

The Central region, as well as all other miscellaneous regions, planted 3,053.1 acres. Of those acres, 89% (2,713.8 acres) of them were Runner, 6% (190.3 acres) were Spanish, 5% (143.9 acres) were Valencia and there were five acres planted of Virginia peanuts.

Texas Peanut Producers Board (TPPB) seeks eligible peanut producers who are interested in serving on the National Peanut Board. TPPB will now hold a nominations election to select two nominees each for member and alternate to the National Peanut Board on March 10, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. CST at Wildcatter Ranch and Resort, 6062 Highway 16. S, Graham, Texas, 76450. All eligible producers are encouraged to participate. Eligible producers are those who are engaged in the production and sale of peanuts and who own or share ownership and risk of loss of the crop.

Peter Froese Jr. of Seminole, Texas is the current National Peanut Board member and Jeff Roper of Lubbock, Texas, serves as the alternate. The terms for the current Texas board member and alternate expire Dec. 31, 2021. 

The National Peanut Board encourages the inclusion of persons of any race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation and marital or family status. NPB encourages all persons who qualify as peanut producers to attend the meeting and run for nomination. 

It is USDA’s policy that membership on industry-government boards and committees accurately reflect the diversity of the individuals served by the programs.

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The National Peanut Board represents all USA peanut farmers and their families. As farmers and stewards of the land, our mission is to improve the economic condition of USA peanut farmers and their families through compelling promotion and groundbreaking research. 

NPB does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, genetic information, parental status, and marital or family status.  The NPB agrees that it will fully comply with any and all applicable Federal, State, and local equal employment opportunity statutes, ordinances, and regulations, including, but not limited to, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the Genetic Information Act of 2008.  Persons requiring alternative means of program communication (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) or mobility assistance should contact NPB at 678-424-5750 prior to attending the NPB event in question.