Question:
I have a farmer that will grow peanuts for the first time this year. He wants to go old school and have no in furrows and do AgLogic and Inoculant in a vacuum planter hopper box. My question is how much yield will he give up doing this. I have a couple farmers in the county that still old school it.
Jordan:
AgLogic is a good choice. Is this new ground or rotated?
Response:
New peanut land. 15 years since peanuts but a lot of soybeans.
Jordan:
Absolute yield hit on the hopper box inoculant versus in-furrow liquid. If they can get a granular inoculant and split the box and deliver inoculant along with AgLogic they will be okay. The in-furrow granular inoculants are not readily available these days, but if they can find one that can be delivered in the seed furrow with AgLogic, they are okay. Peat-based with seed is not uniform in distribution and it will be noticeable in new ground. I will search and send a number. We did a lot of work on this when I first started. Some in the central coastal plain but a lot in Gates county.
The in-furrow granular products can clump some if air is moist, and they can pack in a planter (driving to fields, etc.) At least this was the case for dry, granular products applied in the seed furrow about 15 years ago. You also have to check periodically to make sure units are not stopped up. There is no red ball system like we have with liquid products. Applying AMS to correct a deficiency is very expensive. A true N deficiency requires 500 pounds AMS per acre. Regardless of what they do with their in-furrow treatments, in a new ground field they should apply a peat-based product for insurance. But do not count on the peat-based product on seed as the primary inoculant source.
In the new ground, the most important practice is making sure inoculant reaches the bottom of the seed furrow uniformly across the trench. Financially, this is more important than anything else they will do. This needs to be done correctly. Everything is important, but in new ground this is off-the-charts important.
Don't let a $10/acre, in-furrow application of inoculant cause a lost opportunity new ground peanuts offer.
