A focus on timeliness plus an entrepreneurial approach to farming play key roles in At McIntosh’s success in growing peanuts each year.
Timely fungicide applications, a disciplined rotation and avoiding volunteer peanuts all worked to help Williamsburg County, S.C. farmer Atwood “At” McIntosh make record-breaking peanut yields of 5,100 pounds per acre last year.
A focus on timeliness plus an entrepreneurial approach to farming play key roles in McIntosh’s success in growing peanuts each year. Because of his success in producing peanuts, McIntosh, 38, is the 2018 Peanut Efficiency Award winner for the Upper Southeast.
In addition to growing peanuts, McIntosh produces corn and cotton near Kingstree, S.C.
McIntosh started farming with his father Irwin McIntosh in high school. His dad still helps, but he is mostly retired from full-time farming. Eight generations of the McIntosh family have farmed in the Kingstree area since the Revolutionary War.
Wayne Nixon, an agronomist with Severn Peanut Company, who nominated McIntosh for the award, says McIntosh was the only South Carolina farmer he works with to break the 5,000-pound peanut yield barrier last year.
“At is an excellent farmer. He tries to be a good steward of the land. He uses a good rotation and strip tillage. He keeps his soil fertility correct. He is timely. He applies the correct pesticides and fungicides at the right time. Last year, he had very little leaf spot. That’s a real breakthrough in South Carolina,” Nixon says.
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