Hattiesburg, Miss., farmer, Joe Morgan, produced his first crop in 1965, but he says the best decision he ever made while farming was to start growing peanuts. Joe and his wife Patricia, farm in partnership with their son, Joe Morgan, Jr., and his wife, Grace, on the very appropriately-named M&M Farms, located in Forrest County, Miss.

Reducing his tillage has improved Morgan’s yields. Over the last five years, on average, he has dedicated 944 acres to peanut production. His five-year yield average is 5,976 pounds an acre. For several years, Morgan has been running a vertical tillage rig over the field, then a harrow to help smooth out the ground, and lastly a strip tiller before the planter rolls filled with his stalwart variety of choice – Georgia 06Gs with a Dynasty seed treatment cover.

M&M Farms has been a research proving ground of sorts the last two years for Mississippi State University (MSU). “They’ve been conducting some test plots to measure the impact and benefits of plant growth regulators,” says Morgan. “The work has been replicated at other locations."

Quiet and unassuming describes how Joe Morgan initially comes across, but those in the peanut industry have come to know Morgan as an astute farmer who embraces new technologies, products, and processes that each year culminate into both a high-yielding and high-quality peanut harvest.

Related:Joe Morgan: 2019 Peanut Efficiency Award winner