AMADAS Industries has introduced two new pieces of equipment for the 2026 peanut harvest season: the AMADAS Bulldog Digger and the AMADAS 2130 Pull-Type Peanut Combine. Both machines were unveiled to dealers in December 2025 and feature significant design updates aimed at improving harvesting efficiency, reducing crop loss and simplifying operation.

The AMADAS Bulldog Digger is a completely redesigned digger/inverter which features a new chassis that improves structural integrity, weight distribution and overall balance for enhanced digging performance.

The Bulldog Digger is a completely redesigned digger/inverter featuring a new chassis that improves structural integrity, weight distribution and overall balance for enhanced digging performance. Engineers also focused on protecting yield by redesigning the shank and blade mounting system, improving crop flow through the machine and refining the inversion system. New bent inverting rods and updated fender geometry are designed to produce a more consistent inversion and tighter, more uniform windrow while minimizing crop damage.

The new digger also incorporates several changes intended to improve day-to-day operation and maintenance. Conveyor visibility has been enhanced, belt tensioning has been simplified, shielding provides quicker service access, and greaseless bearings help reduce routine maintenance. A distributed multi-motor drive system is designed to provide reliable performance across a range of field conditions, while the redesigned frame allows the machine to operate efficiently with smaller-frame tractors. Growers also have several configuration options, including a chain-and-bar conveyor and firming roller, allowing the machine to be tailored to individual harvesting preferences.

The AMADAS 2130 pull-type peanut combine features an integrated 10,000-pound peanut tank that allows for longer harvesting intervals between unloading. AMADAS 2130 is also equipped with a redesigned header system featuring feeder house-style height control, level operation, quick-detach capability and compatibility with both 6-36 and 6-38 row configurations.

In addition to the Bulldog Digger, AMADAS introduced the Model 2130 pull-type peanut combine, which includes several updates designed to improve harvesting capacity and operator convenience. The combine features an integrated 10,000-pound peanut tank that allows for longer harvesting intervals between unloading. A redesigned sliding tank also improves access to the picking cylinders for service and maintenance.

The Model 2130 also includes a high-capacity unloading system that increases unloading speed, along with a double-swivel tongue gearbox to improve maneuverability and simplify hitching. A next-generation technology package provides in-cab harvesting adjustments and intelligent machine sensing, while a high-definition camera system offers rear-facing and in-tank views to improve operator visibility.

Additional design changes include heavy-duty construction with CNC-punched panels, a stainless-steel peanut duct and larger service access panels. The combine is also equipped with a redesigned header system featuring feeder house-style height control, level operation, quick-detach capability and compatibility with both 6-36 and 6-38 row configurations. Poly header bands and a larger auger with a deeper trough are intended to improve peanut capture and feeding efficiency during harvest.

The Bulldog Digger and Model 2130 Pull-Type Peanut Combine will be available for the 2026 peanut harvest season through AMADAS dealers.

New artificial intelligence technology aims to improve speed,
consistency and accuracy at peanut buying points.

Priyanka Kumari and Pandian Rajaram demonstrate a prototype of the Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter. The sorter, developed by See Produce, is designed to help streamline the sorting process by using artificial intelligence and machine vision technology to identify and separate peanut samples quickly and consistently.

As peanut harvest season approaches across the Southeast, a new technology developed in the Wiregrass region is preparing to make its debut in one of the most labor-intensive parts of the peanut industry: sorting farmer stock peanuts.

The Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter, developed by See Produce, is designed to help streamline the sorting process by using artificial intelligence and machine vision technology to identify and separate peanut samples quickly and consistently. While peanut grading remains a regulated process that follows established industry standards, this new system seeks to improve one of the critical steps that occurs before grading, helping buying points increase efficiency, consistency and accuracy during the busy harvest season.

What began as a mission to reduce food waste has evolved into one of Alabama’s most promising agricultural technology startups. Founded by Pandian Rajaram and Priyanka Kumari, See Produce combines artificial intelligence with practical agricultural applications, developing tools that can evaluate produce quality, predict shelf life and now assist with peanut sorting. The company’s latest innovation, the Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter, reflects its broader goal of using technology to create greater efficiency and consistency throughout the agricultural supply chain.

The upcoming harvest season will mark a major milestone for the project as the technology moves from development and testing into real-world use.

“The upcoming harvest season is a very important milestone for the Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter and Grader. For the first time, we’re putting industry-grade machines into the field to sort real farmer stock peanuts at buying points. Our goal this season is to test, evaluate and improve. Then bring it to all ~1,100 grading and regrading stations, so every buying point can grade faster, more accurately and more consistently, with shorter lines, and every farmer gets fair pay for every load,” Kumari says.

Unlike traditional sorting methods, which require two to four workers sorting by hand for 10 to 12 hours a day across roughly 100 consecutive days each season with no breaks or holidays, the Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter tackles what has long been one of the most physically demanding jobs at buying points. That sustained workload leads to fatigue, and fatigue directly impacts sorting accuracy, consistency and speed as the season progresses.

Using advanced cameras and artificial intelligence, the system identifies and separates farmer stock peanuts into three primary categories: pods, loose shelled kernels (including kernels and split kernels) and foreign materials such as sticks, stones, empty shells, raisins and dirt. By automating this critical process, the system provides a level of consistency that is difficult to maintain through manual sorting alone. The goal is to bring greater speed, accuracy and repeatability to this essential step, helping ensure every load is handled with the same precision on day one as on day one hundred.

Priyanka Kumari demonstrates how the Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter operates using a prototype during a demonstration at the Georgia Federal-State Inspection Service.

The technology’s potential benefits extend throughout the peanut supply chain. For growers, improved sorting consistency can help increase confidence that every load is being handled fairly and uniformly. For buying points and warehouses, the system could help improve workflow efficiency during one of the busiest times of the year while reducing the physical demands associated with manual sorting.

“By training our models on thousands of data points from farmer stock peanut samples right here in the Wiregrass, we’ve built our See Produce AI that truly understands the crop,” Rajaram says. “It can detect everything from pods, kernels and split kernels to foreign materials, including hard-to-catch ‘raisins,’ at around 95 percent accuracy. That brings an unprecedented level of precision to peanut sorting, and it automatically sorts the farmer stock into three specific bins for pods, loose shelled kernels, and foreign material faster than any traditional method. The best part is, as we keep optimizing, it only gets more accurate and sorts even faster with every load.”

Development of the sorter has been driven by a vision to modernize peanut handling while maintaining the integrity and standards that producers depend on. Rather than replacing existing expertise, the goal is to provide an additional tool that supports the industry through advanced imaging, artificial intelligence and consistent data-driven decision-making.

As harvest begins, researchers and developers will gather valuable information from real-world conditions to continue refining the technology. The data collected this season will help identify future improvements and guide broader implementation opportunities across the peanut industry.

If successful, the Wiregrass AI Peanut Sorter could represent a significant step forward in how farmer stock peanuts are processed, creating a system that is faster, more consistent, and better equipped to serve both growers and buying points.

For an industry that continually balances tradition with innovation, this harvest season may offer a glimpse into the future of peanut handling, one where artificial intelligence helps improve efficiency, consistency, and accuracy while reducing one of the most physically demanding jobs in the industry.

By Peyton Woods

Kelley Manufacturing Co. is expanding its peanut harvest technology lineup for the 2026 season with the commercial release of two new products: PodPro, the peanut industry’s first commercially available yield monitoring system, and the Stack-Fold Flex Peanut Digger, designed to improve harvest efficiency and productivity.

Kelley Manufacturing Co. announces the launch of PodPro, the peanut industry’s first commercially available yield monitoring system.

Developed specifically for peanut production, PodPro provides operators with continuous, real-time yield information during harvest while collecting detailed field data for post-harvest analysis and future management decisions. The system also creates high-resolution yield maps, giving growers a clearer picture of field variability and crop performance.

In addition to monitoring yield, PodPro features a closed-loop harvest optimization system that automatically adjusts the combine’s air damper based on the flow of peanuts through the machine. By maintaining the proper airflow, the system helps prevent duct clogging while reducing pod damage and loose shelled kernels, protecting crop quality and maximizing market value.

Jordan Ledford of Stubbs Farm in Rochelle, Georgia, tested the system during the 2025 harvest season and said the monitor was easy to set up and quickly became part of the harvest routine.

“It didn’t take long to get comfortable with the system, and one of the biggest benefits was being able to monitor what the peanuts were doing in real time, giving us immediate insight into yield instead of having to wait until the end of the season,” Ledford says.

PodPro is designed for integration with the KMC 7406 Peanut Combine and the patent is currently pending.

Kelley Manufacturing Co. is introducing the new KMC Stack-Fold Flex Peanut Digger, available in both 8-row and 10-row models, for the 2026 harvest season.

KMC is also introducing the new KMC Stack-Fold Flex Peanut Digger, available in both 8-row and 10-row models, for the 2026 harvest season. The digger combines the company’s flex digging technology with a stack-fold frame that allows larger-capacity machines to maintain a practical transport width for moving between fields.

Independent digging sections help maintain consistent digging depth across varying terrain, reducing losses while creating uniform windrows for improved drying conditions. For larger operations, the 10-row model can increase daily digging capacity by as much as 67 percent compared to a traditional 6-row digger, allowing more acres to be harvested with a single tractor and operator while potentially reducing labor and equipment needs.

The 10-row model also offers the flexibility to operate using only the center six rows when field conditions require it.

Both products are designed to help growers improve harvest efficiency while providing new tools to maximize yield, preserve crop quality and support more informed management decisions.

For more information, contact KMC at 800-444-5449, or visit the KMC website at www.kelleymfg.com.

Joy Carter Crosby
SEPF Editor

By July, the excitement of planting has settled into the reality of the growing season.

The planters have been parked for weeks, and now comes the part of farming that requires perhaps the greatest amount of patience. The crop is in the field, but there are still countless decisions to make. Irrigation schedules, fungicide applications, insect scouting, weed control and weather forecasts all compete for attention. Every field seems to tell a different story.

July has a way of reminding us that farming is rarely about having complete control. It is about making the best decisions possible with the information available and trusting the process.
Peanut growers know that every season brings its own challenges. Some years it’s too dry. Others, too wet. Heat, insects, disease pressure and market uncertainty can all change the outlook in a matter of days. Yet farmers continue doing what they have always done by adapting, solving problems and preparing for whatever comes next.

One thing that never changes is the importance of paying attention to the details. The small decisions made throughout July often have a tremendous impact on the crop that will eventually be dug in the fall. Consistent scouting, timely management and resisting the urge to cut corners can make all the difference when harvest arrives. University research continues to show that careful, in-season management is critical to protecting both yield and quality.

As you read this issue of Southeastern Peanut Farmer, be sure to spend some time with the 2026 Peanut Harvest Guidebook. While harvest may still seem a few months away, the work of a successful harvest begins long before the first peanuts are dug.

The guidebook offers practical information to help growers prepare equipment, improve harvest efficiency and maximize yield and quality. From preseason maintenance tips for diggers and combines to using the Official Variety Trials to better estimate optimum maturity, the guidebook is designed to help you head into harvest with confidence. You’ll also find coverage of new equipment from KMC and AMADAS, highlighting the latest technology and innovations available for the 2026 peanut harvest season.

To every peanut farmer across the Southeast, thank you for the work you do. Long before harvest begins, you’ve invested countless hours, resources and faith into this year’s crop. We know the work isn’t easy, but it’s important. Here’s hoping July brings timely rains and the promise of a successful harvest ahead.

By Joy Crosby