Farmer testing viability of new Wash. crop: peanuts

By Associated Press

Story

Summary

Steve Price, whose family cleared sagebrush to farm in the Basin City area where he grew up, says he's "been taking a lot of guff" about his latest crop, but believes peanuts might make a good crop for oil for biodiesel.

Story Published: Aug 13, 2007 at 12:47 PM PST

BASIN CITY, Wash. (AP) - An Eastern Washington farmer and agriculture research scientists from Washington State University are investigating the viability of a new crop in the state: peanuts.

Steve Price, whose family cleared sagebrush to farm in the Basin City area where he grew up, says he's "been taking a lot of guff" about his latest crop, but believes peanuts might make a good crop for oil for biodiesel.

Price has been growing dry beans in the area about 30 miles north of Eastern Washington's Tri-Cities since the 1980s. He planted about 25 acres of peanuts last year, just to see if he could grow them.

Some old-timers in the area also told him a handful of farmers had tried growing peanuts in the area during the 1960s.

"When I started this I thought my background in dry edible beans would be a plus," Price said. "But I found out I don't know anything about peanuts."

The region lacks the special tools needed to harvest the crop, as well as processors to take the peanuts once they have been harvested. Some facilities might be able to process the peanuts, bu they likely would not want to use the same equipment they use for dry beans because of the potentially dangerous allergen issues related to peanuts.

However, those problems can be fixed if the crop grows well and there's a market for it. And despite knowing little about growing the crop, having problems with weeds and lacking the proper equipment, Price did well last year.

Two varieties yielded more than 5,000 pounds of peanuts an acre, compared with a national average of about 3,300 pounds per acre.

Price's initiative impressed Tim Waters, a WSU extension educator based in Pasco. He and another professor for WSU's crop and soil sciences program began working with Price and helping where they could.

This year, Price replanted some peanuts and Waters and a team at WSU planted some test fields of five different varieties at Columbia Basin College.

"We can do this and study the potential to see if this is something that is feasible for growers so they don't have to take the risk," Waters said.

So far, the plants seem to be doing even better than they did last year, although they won't be ready for harvest until October.

Waters said he's confident peanuts, which are generally grown in Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia, can be grown successfully in the Columbia Basin.

"We have excellent growing conditions here and can grow almost anything," he said.

Meanwhile, scientists in George are testing different varieties of peanuts for biodiesel feedstock. The first diesel engine reportedly ran on peanut oil. And peanuts produce twice as much oil as soybeans, which are used to produce biodiesel in many areas.