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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Farmer experiments with peanuts, finds good yield

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

BASIN CITY, Wash. – An Eastern Washington farmer and agriculture research scientists from Washington State University are investigating the viability of a new crop in the state: peanuts.

Steve Price, whose family cleared sagebrush to farm in the Basin City area where he grew up, says he’s “been taking a lot of guff” about his latest crop, but believes peanuts might make a good crop for oil for biodiesel.

Price has been growing dry beans in the area about 30 miles north of the Tri-Cities since the 1980s. He planted about 25 acres of peanuts last year, just to see if he could grow them.

Some old-timers in the area told him a handful of farmers had tried peanuts in the area during the 1960s.

“When I started this I thought my background in dry edible beans would be a plus,” Price said. “But I found out I don’t know anything about peanuts.”

The region lacks the tools needed to harvest the crop, as well as processors to take the peanuts. Some facilities might be able to process them, but they likely would not want to use the same equipment they use for dry beans because of the potentially dangerous allergen issues related to peanuts.

However, those problems can be fixed if the crop grows well and there’s a market for it. And despite knowing little about growing the crop, having weed problems and lacking proper equipment, Price did well last year.

Two varieties yielded more than 5,000 pounds of peanuts an acre, compared with a national average of about 3,300 pounds per acre.

Price’s initiative impressed Tim Waters, a WSU extension educator based in Pasco. He and another professor for WSU’s crop and soil sciences program began working with Price.

This year, Price replanted some peanuts and Waters and a team at WSU planted some test fields of five different varieties at Columbia Basin College.

“We can do this and study the potential to see if this is something that is feasible for growers so they don’t have to take the risk,” Waters said.