State’s peanut crop tops in U.S.

Heavy on the vine

Back in the summer, the peanut industry was facing a crisis. The extended drought had affected nearly half of the state’s peanut growers, and they were looking at a bad, perhaps disastrous, year.

But, the same September rains from Tropical Storm Lee that saved pecan growers turned the season around for peanut farmers. Instead of a bad year, the crop yield in Mississippi is expected to top all U.S. peanut-producing states.

This month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasted Mississippi’s 2011 crop yield for peanuts would be 3,600 pounds per acre, No. 1 among…

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