Diane Rowland
Agronomy Department
University of Florida
dlrowland@ufl.edu
Welcome to PeanutFARM – Field Agronomic Resource Manager. PeanutFARM is a group of tools aimed at helping growers manage peanut development and maturity by tracking adjusted growing degree days (aGDD). aGDD’s use upper and lower daily air temperatures, plus the amount of water the crop receives from rainfall and irrigation, to predict the development of the crop. In addition to tracking peanut maturity, aGDD’s are used by PeanutFARM to help schedule irrigation through estimating crop canopy cover and daily water use. This daily water use is then modified using weather data – which can be automatically drawn from state networks or input for individual fields, depending on grower preference. As the grower develops their own profile, each field can be managed separately and processed by PeanutFARM to accurately predict the need for irrigation and optimum harvest time. The purpose of PeanutFARM is to provide the producer with tools to ease both in-season and harvest management decisions.
Disclaimer: this is a beta testing model only. This model is based on several years of research, but further on-farm testing is continuing. Use this model with caution – decisions of crop management are ultimately up to the individual grower.
Research support provided by: National Peanut Board and the Florida Peanut Producers Association