2020 Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation Results

2020 Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation Results: Agronomic and Grade Data

Virginia and Carolinas grow annually 200 thousand acres with the large-seeded Virginia-type peanut. Marketability of this peanut type is more diverse than for other types including in-shell and gourmet shelled products with higher value than for other peanut types. For example, in the week ending March 14, 2020, a pound of farmer stock Virginia-type seed was 6.7 cents more than runner-type (Virginia-type was 26.4 cents per pound and runner 19.7 cents). With an average yield of the new cultivars at 4200 pounds per acre across the region, Virginia-type peanut is a “cash” crop for Virginia and the Carolinas providing farmers with over $1100 per acre, compared with $390 per acre for corn (e.g. as of Jan 2020 corn price was $3.18 per bushel and average corn yield in the Virginia-Carolina region in 2019 was 120 bushels per acre).

The pdf document below includes the 2020 agronomic and grade results from 2020 multi-state Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation (PVQE) testing along with 2- and 3-year averages for the commercial cultivars and advanced breeding lines in the “pipeline” for release.

The PVQE is the official “pipeline” for Virginia-type peanut cultivar development for the Virginia-Carolina region.