Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The Peanut Variety and Quality Evaluation (PVQE) Advisory Committee met at 10:30 a.m. on March 25, 2015, at the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk, Virginia. At 10:30 a.m., Dr. Maria Balota called the meeting to order. She then turned the meeting over to Dr. Roger Crickenberger from N.C. State University who was designated as the chairperson this year. Dr. Crickenberger welcomed everyone and asked that they go around the room for quick introductions. He then asked for the prior meeting minutes to be approve, which they were accepted as distributed. Dr. Crickenberger then asked for administrative comments. Dr. David Langston, Director at Virginia Tech Tidewater AREC introduced himself as he is new to his position. He welcomed everyone to the facility. Dr. Jody Jellison from Virginia Tech told the committee that they could expect continuing support of the PVQE program and its trials from the VT administration. As for a couple of updates, she mentioned the reorganization of plant sciences and of the growing grad student enrollment, which is currently at 570. Dr. Crickenberger from NCSU spoke of two initiatives with the N.C. legislature. One initiative concerns pushing the stakeholders for commitment on a new building at N.C. State, which would then give the foundation to ask for funds from the legislature. He also spoke about the Department of Agriculture and about efficiency studies. Dr. Maria Balota spoke next on PVQE updates, production from 2014 and new information for 2015. The PVQE results report for 2014 – Quality Data II – is available for everyone to pick up. Dr. Balota also read over the list of voting members for informational purposes. For the PVQE update, a handout with the PVQE budget was available listing the operational budget items for 9 years along with the amount of support from the different areas. This handout also showed other contributions and acknowledgements along with upcoming needs and purchases. Dr. Balota commented that she was very pleased with the work of the staff and the improving efficiency. She thanked all for the contributions from other areas. On the back of the budget handout, was a summary of yield and crop value for breeding lines in 2014 along with the summary of grading data. Dr. Balota also commented on a new position. Pam Copeland, a former 1500 hour wage employee resigned, giving Dr. Balota an opportunity to move in a different direction with that position. She advertised for a research associate position and hired Joseph Oakes. A portion of Joseph’s salary will be from the PVQE budget for those duties he will be performing that were previously the 1500 hour wage position and the remaining portion of his salary will be from other project funding for additional research he will be conducting. Dr. Balota also talked about the age of the present combine and the need for a second combine as a backup. They had a very good used combine they wanted to purchase for $3500 but due to the fact that it was owned by one of TAREC’s employees family members, they were unable to secure that purchase. They are currently looking for other combines in the area. Being a 2 row combine makes it more difficult to find. Dr. Balota also spoke about being optimistic for even better PVQE testing and results in 2015 from SC, NC and VA trials. As for issues, they are looking at deer fencing needs in some areas of NC and Southampton County. In planting, there was an issue of the vacuum planter not planting the larger size kernels as the tube would stop up and cause skips in some places. Smaller size kernels worked fine but the larger ones were a problem. Doug Redd commented that they are looking to use an older style planter this year for the larger kernel seeds to help eliminate that problem. This led to a discussion on seed sizes and what producers in the area wanted – uniform size seeds. Next on the agenda was Dr. Tom Isleib with an update on peanut breeding. The handout, Documentation for North Carolina State University Lines Entered in the 2015 PVQE Program, was given out and discussed. Table 1 is the NCSU lines entered in the 2015 PVQE program. Table 2 shows several years of data on different lines. The tables following show performance, disease reactions, and flavor profiles. Dr. Isleib’s final discussion was on the proposal for the release of peanut breeding line N10046ol for which there was a handout giving the description of the breeding and testing history, agronomic performance, disease reactions/resistance, flavor characteristics, blanching characteristics and oil chemistry/calcium content. NC10046ol is a large-seeded Virginia type peanut breeding line. Slides of the data were shown and explained by Dr. Isleib. Breeding occurred from the winter of 2003 to the summer of 2008. The testing phase began the summer of 2009 until the summer of 2014. The four diseases mostly watched for were early leaf spot, CBR, Sclerotinia and tomato spotted wilt virus. In addition pod brightness and value per acre data were shown. After a discussion of yield, value per acre, disease resistance, flavor, and the growth habits in the field as compared to Sullivan and Bailey, a motion was entered and seconded to support the release of N10046. The committee voting members passed the motion. There was some discussion on the name of the line but at this time, the name has not been decided. Dr. Crickenberger asked for any further business, and there being none he thanked everyone for participating and adjourned the meeting.