SANTEE, S.C. — Farmers throughout South Carolina attended Clemson's annual Peanut Growers Meeting in Santee on Thursday.
Peanut growers sat through classes about research results, harvest tips and more.
Hannah Mikell, an agronomy agent at Clemson Extension, said peanut farmers in South Carolina are creative.
"So, the peanut farmers are really some of our elite farmers in the state," said Mikell. "They're able to work in peanut rotation with cotton and then also do some corn and soybeans on the side, and they're really innovative as far as changing some of their practices that they've done in the past."
Richard Rentz is the chairman of the South Carolina Peanut Board and said technology has played an instrumental role in peanut farming.
"The guidance system on tractors, one of the critical things with peanuts is to hold it directly over the row," said Rentz. "Precision where you put your tractor and the guidance systems have helped tremendously with that. The monitor systems where we can monitor irrigation water has helped a lot with peanuts, and we're being able to pinpoint herbicides fungicides we use on peanuts, which saves chemicals and is better on the environment."
Neal Baxley, a peanut farmer from Marion County, said inclement weather can be a hurdle in peanut farming.
"We face a lot of challenges, we face challenges from losing farmland to urban development and housing," said Baxley. "One of the biggest challenges we've had the last couple of years is a lot of bad weather, 15',16',18' all these hurricane years. But we face challenges every day and we figure out a way to get over them."
Peanut growers will start their season in the spring.