The 25th Georgia Peanut Tour this year hosted participants from 12 states and international attendees from Belgium, Canada and Argentina.

The event, held at the end of September in the Southwest area of Georgia, allowed many first time attendees to actually walk through a peanut field and see peanuts plowed up with a digger at harvest. The tour included stops in some of the top ten peanut producing counties in Georgia including Decatur, Seminole, Miller and Early counties.

The Georgia Peanut Tour brings the latest information on peanuts while giving a first-hand view of industry quality and infrastructure from production and handling to processing and utilization. The 2011 tour included farm visits, peanut harvest clinics, production research at the University of Georgia Attapulgus Research and Education Center, peanut handling and grading facilities and on-farm demonstrations. The tour also included a visit to LMC and American Peanut Growers Group in Donalsonville, Ga., Birdsong Peanuts, JLA and Olam Edible Nuts in Blakely, Ga.

The Georgia Peanut Tour is coordinated by the Georgia Peanut Commission, the University of Georgia Tifton and Griffin Campus, Southwest Georgia Research and Education Center in Plains, Attapulgus Research and Education Center and the USDA ARS National Peanut Research Laboratory in Dawson, Ga.

See photos from the tour by the Georgia Peanut Commission on Flickr and find out more on the Georgia Peanut tour blog.