Progress 03/01/24 to 02/28/25
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project spans multiple levels of the peanut industry, with a particular focus on evaluating the formation of a new high-oil peanut market. At the forefront are Texas peanut growers, who will be directly involved in producing these cultivars. We actively engage with them through field days as well as regular interactions with the Texas Peanut Producers Board, where we gather feedback, and they serve as a sounding board for new ideas on the project. These meetings allow us to connect with producers from every peanut-growing region in Texas, ensuring their insights help shape the direction of our work. Additionally, we use these opportunities to share information about the potential of high-oil peanuts for cooking and renewable fuel applications and assess farmer interest in this emerging market. Beyond growers, we engaged with industry stakeholders to access their interest in the potential new market. Finally, we extend our outreach to the general public, fostering awareness and understanding of this initiative through educational events, research center tours, and community presentations. Over the past year, we have hosted diverse groups, including international visitors, government officials, and industry representatives. By engaging these stakeholders, we aim to build a sustainable foundation for a new high-oil peanut market that benefits growers, researchers, and consumers alike. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Myself and several members of my staff attended the 56th annual American Peanut Research and Education Society meetings in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where we learned about current trends in peanut research. We also attended multiplein-person field days and grower meetings. These events provided opportunities to earn continuing education credits toward the Texas Department of Agriculture Noncommercial Pesticide Applicator's license, as well as maintain FAA accreditation as a Remote Pilot in Command in addition to learning about new pesticide available for use in peanut research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All of these accomplishments have been actively shared through regularly scheduled Texas A&M AgriLife Extension farmer meetings and field tours, ensuring that growers remain informed about ongoing developments in high-oil peanut research and market feasibility. Additionally, we have presented our progress at Texas Peanut Producers Board meetings, engaging directly with industry stakeholders to discuss the economic and agronomic potential of high-oil peanuts. Beyond these group settings, we have conducted one-on-one discussions with seed and shelling companies, fostering direct industry engagement and exploring the logistics, processing challenges, and market opportunities necessary for the successful establishment of a high-oil peanut sector. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will build on our initial feasibility analysis, field data evaluations, and industry engagement to further refine the development of a high-oil peanut market. Specifically, we will expand our economic feasibility model by incorporating additional site-specific production data across multiple years as well as refining cost assessments based on industry feedback and multi year data. We will also look at current barriers to adoption and customer preferences through the Human Behavior Laboratory at Texas A&M University. We will finalize the analysis of 2024 field trial data, identifying the most promising high-oil breeding lines for yield, grade, and oil content that can be used to create new breeding populations and reevaluate the highest performing lines in 2025. We will also continue seed increases to as we move towards large plot trials as well as Foundation Seed increase of new high oil lines. Additionally, we will initiate advanced economic modeling to compare the cost structures of edible vs. oil-use peanuts, identifying key areas for cost reduction in processing. Engagement with seed and shelling companies will continue, focusing on potential partnerships for processing high-oil peanuts at scale. Finally, we will intensify our outreach efforts, presenting findings at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension meetings, Texas Peanut Producers Board meetings, and scientific conferences to further educate growers, industry stakeholders, and the scientific community on the economic and agronomic potential of high-oil peanuts.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Significant progress has been made in both thebreeding and economic evaluationof a potentialhigh-oil peanut market during the first official year of the project. This year, weenlisted the help of Mr. Bob Parker to developa feasibility modelto analyze theeconomic viability of peanut production for oil based on pricing from 2013 to 2023. This model accounts for key economic parameters, includingproduction costs, processing expenses, transportation, and potential revenue streams. We are also looked at site-specific economic factorsfrom ourtesting locations in Texas. All these estimates will be updated with2024 season data. From a breeding perspective, we planted breeding trials around the state of Texas that evaluated high oil breeding lines in different real farm production scenarios. Yield, grade and management data were collected and will be entered into the Economic feasibility models. We are still activelyanalyzing 2024 field datato assessyield, grade, and oil contentacross all these environments. These evaluations are critical for identifying peanut lines with thehighest oil yieldswhile maintaining agronomic performance under various production scenarios. In addition to these fully irrigated scenarios we also evaluated high oil lines under limited irrigation and rainfed conditions to further evaluate the feasibility of peanut production for oil in Texas and the Southwest. As part of this we have developed an high content algorithm and flew UAS. This data will be used to develop best management practices and recommendation for seeding rate and irrigation timing for low input sustainable peanut production. Finally, wesubmitted applications for the release of two high-oil peanut varietieswith theTexas Plant and Seed Board. Both varieties tested significantly higher than commercial checks in Texas across several years of testing. They underwentinitial seed increases in 2024 and will be increased for future expansion and as well as demonstration trials during the 2025 season. These efforts, spanninggenetic improvement, economic modeling, and market feasibility,are essential steps toward establishing asustainable high-oil peanut industryin the U.S. As our work progresses, we will continue refining our models, exploring barriers to adoption, consumer preferencesand expanding our field evaluations to ensure that this new market is botheconomically viable and beneficialforfarmers, processors, and end-users.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Cason, J.M., M.D. Burow, H. Pham, C.E. Simpson, B.D. Bennett, J. Shumaker, W. Ravelombola and M.R. Baring. 2024. Registration of Tx137967 Peanut. Texas Seed and Plant Board. November 15, 2024. texasagriculture.gov.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Cason, J.M., M.R. Baring, M.D. Burow, C.E. Simpson, B.D Bennett, H. Pham, J. Shumaker, W. Ravelombola. 2024. Registration of 31-08-05-03 Peanut. Texas Seed and Plant Board. November 15, 2024. texasagriculture.gov.
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