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The research is out and studies have shown that introducing peanut products to infants as early as four-months-old can help prevent peanut allergies. Peanut butter and peanut powder are easy ways to incorporate peanuts into your infant’s diet. In honor of #NationalPeanutMonth, here are some quick and easy recipes to save you some time in the kitchen. (Click on recipe titles for links to delicious treats)

1. Strawberry, Banana, Peanut Powder Smoothie

Five ingredients and a blender are all you need for this sharable treat! Peanut powder is a light and easy to use in smoothies such as this one from Meatloaf and Melodrama.

2. Peanut Butter and Butternut Squash

Check out this easy recipe from National Peanut Board that you can easily add into your infant’s diet with no fuss! Simply add 1/4 of a cup of peanut butter into butternut squash puree and you’ll have this lunch ready to go.

3. Peanut Butter Breakfast Bites

Six Sister’s Stuff shows how to make these breakfast bites that are an easy treat to make for your little one as a quick breakfast or mid-day snack.

4. Peanut Butter Teething Biscuits

These biscuits are great for teething infants. Whip up these treats and place them in the freezer overnight for extra soothing on those irritated gums. Check out this recipe from the National Peanut Board.

5. Peanut Butter Banana Nibblers

This recipe for frozen banana bites are easy to make with ingredients you probably already have around the kitchen. All you need is greek yogurt, peanut butter and a few ripe bananas.  

For an infant who is not to solid foods yet, incorporating peanut products is as simple as adding a teaspoon of peanut butter into some formula before feeding. This video from the National Peanut Board has some other great ideas on how to use peanut products in your infant’s diet. Share your favorite #earlyintroduction recipes with us on social media!

There is nothing scarier to a mother or father than their child being in danger. A common concern today is life-threatening food allergies, many of which are from peanuts and peanut products. According to The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunity, the rate of peanut allergies in children, as reported in a telephone survey, more than tripled between 1997 and 2008. This is about the time period mothers were encouraged to avoid any and every peanut product while pregnant, and told to wait several years into the child’s life before introducing peanuts into their diets.

However, the word is out and the science has proven that introducing peanut products to infants starting at about 4 months of age is the best way to prevent a peanut allergy from developing. In order to understand why this is, it is important to understand what a peanut allergy is, the level of risk the infant has for developing a peanut allergy, and ways to safely and effectively introduce the peanut product into their diets.

The National Peanut Board has provided more information about clinical guidelines and safe ways to begin early introduction of peanut butter to infants such as recipes for baby teething biscuits and peanut butter and butternut squash.

National Peanut Board

For more information, visit the links below:

http://nationalpeanutboard.org/wellness/allergies/npb-cosponsorship-of-leap-study-is-impetus-for-new-national-institutes-of-health-guidelines.htm

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/guidelines-clinicians-and-patients-food-allergy

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/nih-sponsored-expert-panel-issues-clinical-guidelines-prevent-peanut-allergy

http://nationalpeanutboard.org/news/5-easy-ideas-to-introduce-peanut-to-infants.htm

http://peanutallergyfacts.org/blog/behind-the-headlines-a-pediatrician-talks-about-leap-on

Farming life is one that takes passion and patience. Those who grew up farming know that it is a lifestyle, not just a career. Waking up before dawn, and tending to the crops until well after the sun goes down is something these farmers know well. Peanut farmers are no exception to this idea. Kathy and Monty Henson both know the life of farming. They know that it is not just a career but it is instead, their passion.

“Tough times call for tough people, farming is about helping each other out. When someone is sick or needs to leave town, we help them. You won’t be able to make every tee ball game, but those moments are important and we are a like a family…we work when we help each other,” said Kathy Henson.

Kathy and Monty have been farming as a team and growing peanuts since 1997. They said raising a family in a farming lifestyle can teach children characteristics that are important for their future. Not only do they know the basics of work ethic and discipline, but as Kathy said about her children, “They know how much their jeans cost and what it took to make them.”

The next generations are going to be the ones to stand up for agriculture and if they know how hard farmers work, from watching mom and dad put their heart into the soil, it makes their voice so much louder.

“When you’re working with peanuts, every step is important. You have to take it slow and go through your check list to make sure you don’t miss a single part of the process,” said Monty.

Monty said if you miss a watering or are late in weed protection, the whole crop could suffer making the hours of hard work produce nothing. Farming requires patience and adaptability; especially in the West Texas region where the weather is unpredictable.

There has also been flooding in the East Texas regions that caused some farmers to get a late start on planting or required farmers to pray for sunshine to get the water out of their fields. These factors, along with unpredictability of Mother Nature, make farming a practice that one must be passionate about. If one is not wholeheartedly dedicated to the crop, it could be easy to give up after hail destroys a cotton field or a windstorm cracks the soil.

Farmers like Kathy and Monty put their heart into what they do and work every day for a crop that feeds people all over the world. Farmers plant hundreds of acres of crops so that there will be peanut butter on our sandwiches. We sometimes take for granted the passion and dedication these men and women put in to making food, clothes, and items we use every day, all while using limited resources. Farmers are the backbone of this country and don’t just farm for a career, they farm because it is a way of living, and a way of building a family.

As Paul Harvey said, “It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and brake, and disk, and plow, and plant, and tie the fleece and strain the milk, . Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what Dad does. “So God made a farmer.””

Texas Peanut Producers Board is dedicated to spending 50 percent of our annual budget on research, approximately $350 thousand annually. In an effort to keep our farmers informed, our peanut research team got together and wrote a series of articles over successes in the industry. We will be featuring these articles in a three part blog series. Thank you to our Texas Peanut Breeding Research Team Members, Drs. Mark Burow, Michael Baring, Charles Simpson and John Cason, for their contributions.

Part I: The Past 15 Years

The mission of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research peanut breeding program is to develop improved peanut varieties for the growers of Texas, the United States, and developing countries all over the world. The program has released 11 new peanut varieties over the past 15 years which include; OLin, COAN, Tamrun OL01, Tamrun OL02, NemaTAM, Tamnut OL06, Tamrun OL07, Tamrun OL11, Tamrun OL12, Webb, and Schubert. Several of these varieties continue to be in some stage of production today.

OLin, which was released in 2000 as the first high oleic, Spanish-type peanut on the commercial market is still being grown today as well as its successor, Tamnut OL06 which was released in 2006. More recently in 2013 the program released Schubert (Pics 1&2) which was named after the late Dr. Mike Schubert long-time plant physiologist for Texas A&M. Schubert boast increased yield potential of 500 lbs/a, improved shell-out characteristics grading 1-2 percentage points higher, and maturing approximately one week earlier than OLin. It has seed size similar to OLin which is much smaller than the Tamnut OL06 variety and characteristics of a true Spanish-type peanut. Foundation Seed Service currently has a 12 acre increase of Schubert growing in West Texas.

Tamrun OL11 was released in 2011 because it has a high level of resistance to Sclerotinia blight and it has the highest grade potential of any of the TAMU releases both past and present. It was released to compete with the Flavor Runner 458 variety which was grown on much of the West Texas peanut region. Testing revealed that there was no significant difference between Tamrun OL11 and Flavor Runner 458 for yield, but that on average Tamrun OL11 would grade about 1 percentage point higher in fields with no disease pressure. Tests in fields where Sclerotinia blight was present revealed that Tamrun OL11 had a 25-50% yield advantage and a 3-4 percentage point grade advantage over Flavor Runner 458 depending upon the year and location of the test. Pic 3 is of a fungicide/no fungicide trial where there are four rows of Tamrun OL11 alternated with 4 rows of Flavor Runner 458 across the field. The Flavor Runner 458 rows have dead and dying plants throughout the length of the field while the Tamrun OL11 rows look healthy. There should be over ten thousand acres of commercial seed available for 2016.

Lush, green areas are TamrunOL11

Webb, which was named after long-time executive director of the Texas Peanut Producers Board Mary Webb, was released in 2013. Webb was the first Rootknot nematode resistant variety ever released that included the high oleic trait. It has moderate levels of resistance to Sclerotinia blight and has performed in the top group of our advanced line trials across the state for both yield and value per acre. This variety should be a good fit for South Texas growers where we have seen a recent increase in the number of fields identified as being infested with Rootknot nematodes. All of the Rootknot nematode resistant lines maintain their dark green appearance even in the presence of nematodes as depicted in the following picture (Pic 4). This was a South Texas Variety Trial performed by Jason Woodward and it was planted in a field of Georgia 09B. The field was visibly yellowed throughout the growing season while Webb and our other nematode resistant breeding lines remained dark green in color.

Webb

Check back soon for the next part of this three part series, Advanced Lines that are Near Release

From the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness

USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service has reported the 2014 marketing year national seasonal average price for peanuts to be $0.22/lb which translates to $440/ton FSP. This can be found on the USDA-NASS website using its Quick Stats at the bottom of the home page.

If the national seasonal average price is below $535/ton FSP, a 2014 peanut PLC payment will occur. The PLC payment will be $535-$440= $95/base ton FSP.

The farmer has two ways to calculate the total payment per farm serial number.

The farmer would take the $95/base ton times 85% of the base acres (includes generic base allocated to peanuts) on that farm serial number times the payment yield for that farm serial number. This total payment would be reduced by the sequestration cut. Based on the USDA-FSA Handbook for ARCPLC, the 2014 sequestration cut would be 7.3%. This approach is what one would see and hear from USDA-FSA folks and the press.

The alternative approach, which the NCPC prefers is as follows. Both approaches will yield the same total PLC dollar amount per farm serial number. First, the farmer calculates their total peanut base tonnage per farm serial number by multiplying the base acres (includes generic base allocated to peanuts) times the payment yield. This will allow the farmer to compare their total base tonnage on that farm to their total production. The farmer would then multiply the PLC payment per ton (in this case it is $95/base ton) by 85% and then reduce that value by the sequestration cut (7.3%). That is $95*.85*(1.0-0.073) which equals $74.85525. One can view the $74.85525 as the net PLC per base ton. The farm’s total PLC payment would then be $74.85525 times the total base tons on the farm.

The farmer needs to be cautioned in that the total payments from all of their farms will be directly attributed to the individual with a cap of $125,000 per entity. If a farmer had any 2014 peanut crop MLGs, that MLG will also be attributed back to the individual and count against the $125,000 payment limit. Based on when the farmer received their MLGs, those gains may count first against their payment limit, which could lead to further reduction in actual PLC payments. Southern commodity organizations are working with Members of Congress in obtaining generic certificates applicable for the 2015 and 2016 crops. If successful, the generic certificates would be substituted for potential LDP/MLG, which would not be counted against one’s payment limit.

Finally, not knowing how USDA-FSA will round and when they will round, their final numbers may differ slightly from the numbers presented above due to rounding.