Cotton, corn and soybeans will continue to be driving forces behind the peanut market as farmers across the Peanut Belt weigh recent upticks in peanut contract offerings against what they can get from competing crops and as they compare production costs to make final plans for 2011 acreage.

Cotton at $2 a pound helped push spring peanut contract offerings higher, said Tyron Spearman, editor, Peanut Market News and chairman of the American Peanut Council during a market outlook session at the recent Oklahoma Peanut Expo in Lone Wolf, Okla.

Spearman said acreage for 2011 likely will decline by 14 percent nationwide. “Georgia acreage could be down 20 percent,” he said. “We hope to see an increase in Oklahoma. We need good quality peanuts.”

Farmers heard this marketing update as well as discussions on proudction strategies and legislative activities during the annual conference.