Considering when to dig dryland fields under current and surrounding conditions involves several factors. I tend to weigh digging or maturity decisions in light of what there is to gain versus what is at risk of being lost. This ties in with if we are facing limiting conditions from poor vine health, nearing the end of the season (we are not at that point just yet), or weather/field access.
Normal maturity targets are one consideration, but if vine health is declining or is at risk to soon decline due to extended drought stress where the plants are wilted over and half dead and crispy or where leaf spot defoliation is building (want Virginias dug before 40% defoliated, runners not more than 50% defoliated), these can move up when we would consider digging the field. Fields that have recently expressed mild to moderate drought stress are at less of a risk for prompting early digging. Other factors that favor earlier digging include when a majority of kernels are rattling in hulls across different samples/spots in the field, if peg strength is declining from weakened plant health condition and contribute to many pods falling off when a plant is vigorously shaken, or if maturity levels have appeared steady/stagnant across samples taken near 10 to 14 days apart.
Peanut fields that have undergone long periods of drought can stall maturity development as well, where further increase does not happen or is marginal at best. Related features that can accompany this is where kernel skins inside the hull turn copper/brown instead of pink/white, which reflect development being essentially done, kernel-pod separation, or when the pod has color development only on the saddle/upper ridge of hull rather than more uniform color development across the entire pod. Partial pod coloration is a weaker indication of development status and by itself would not be enough to motivate an earlier digging decision. Partially colored pods are grouped by the darkest hull color present. If black (VA) pods are at 100% of their potential weight, brown would represent 95%, orange 75%, yellow 60%, with white pods being about 30% of the weight of what a mature black pod would be. Many recent runners display less pods in the coal black category.
Some fields are too dry to get the digger in to be able to dig if we wanted to and will need to wait for a rain shower to soften the ground. Sandier fields may be able to be accessed and inverted, and other fields in between may be able to be dug but with more clods. The possible chance of rain over the weekend would help to reduce digging losses in hard ground should it come.
We currently do not appear to be looking at the prospect of not being able to get into a field because it is too wet, but if a field is nearing upper ranges of maturity (for example, Virginias around 80% OBB with many black pods or where leaf spot defoliation could be at a tipping point if wet conditions kept us out of the field), digging in sandier fields where available in order to prevent getting into a situation where over maturity kicks in and leaves more pods in the ground would be another reason to consider digging sooner rather than much later.
For irrigated fields that have dry and stressed corners, we can err on the side of caution to keep the stressed corners separate from the irrigated portion when combining. In the event there are seg differences between these, keeping them separate can reduce the extent of potential value loss.
