A pipeline of old and new crop peanuts and cheap prices from other commodities have dampened the hopes of a profitable 2014 for producers. The 2012 crop filled warehouses, and producers, knowing that production had to be reduced to allow supply and demand to keep prices high enough to make peanut growing profitable, reduced acreage by 36 percent. In 2013, some farmers switched to corn as prices held strong. Cotton, too, reached 90 cents per pound, and farmers had $500 per ton on peanuts. Certain that the abundance of water had damaged the crop, new varieties showed some resilience and surprised everyone. If a farmer's timing on contracting was right, a profit was likely.
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