A report released this week by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service shows an increase in acres planted in peanuts this year in Alabama. Although previous reports indicated Alabama to be at 185,000 acres that have been planted, the new forecast shows Alabama at 215,000 planted acres with an expected 212,000 acres to be harvested.
The increase in planted acres is mainly due to relatively low prices of other crops, especially cotton. Alabama is one of the top producing states in the U.S., second only to Georgia with a total of 800,000 acres planted. Overall, U.S. peanut growers planted an estimated 1.6 million acres of peanuts and intend to harvest 1.57 million acres, both up 18 percent from the previous year.