Georgia, the No. 1 producing peanut state in the U.S., is expecting a record- breaking peanut yield this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At the end of harvest, Georgia farmers can expect to have 3,500 pounds of peanuts per acre, according to an October report released by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, an agency within the USDA.

“Forty-five percent of U.S. peanut acreage and production comes from Georgia,” said John Beasley, a professor and extension peanut agronomist in the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, in a telephone interview Friday. “Whatever happens in Georgia has a tremendous effect on what happens in the U.S. in total.”

In 2003, Georgia produced a record yield of 3,450 pounds of peanuts per acre. Through harvest, NASS submits a monthly report projecting the expected yield, based on surveys of the crop conditions, Beasley said.

“This year we had a fair amount of rainfall scattered throughout the growing season,” he said. “Some fields didn’t get as much as they needed, but overall, none were in a significant drought.”

But an underground fungus may reduce the expected record-breaking yield, although farmers have been using fungicide to protect their crops, said Bob Kemerait, a plant pathologist in the College of Agricultural & Enviornmental Scieces, in a telephone interview Friday.

“A lot of growers have been surprised when they turned the peanuts and have seen this underground form of white mold that has eaten the pots off the peanut plant,” said Kemerait. “They didn’t see the disease coming.”

In 2008, every peanut-producing state expanded its acreage, resulting in 2.6 million tons of peanuts, Beasley said. This increase from the usual yield of 1.8 million tons led Beasley to ask Georgia farmers to reduce their acreage by 30 percent during grower meetings with county agents.

“My No. 1 message, as an agronomist, was we overproduced, and this has forced the value and price of the peanut downward,” he said. “To get our production back in line he value and price of the peanut tion back in line from being in over-supply, we recommended reducing their acreage.”

The salmonella outbreak in a Blakely County peanut plant in January also influenced his message to farmers.

“First we have an over supply, so we have to get our acreage down. Second, if we do see a drop in consumption, we cannot over produce again or it would ruin the market,” he said. “But the actual consumption has remained very strong. If anything, peanut butter consumption has gone up because of these economic times. It’s people’s primary source of protein.”

His message to farmers in 2010 will be to continue the current acreage of 500,000, he said.

“We still have a carry over from last year,” Beasley said. “They’re donating peanut butter to food banks and trying to increase consumption of peanut products by spreading messages about peanuts and peanut products, and how healthy it is for you.”