Things change - for peanut farmers, too

In the early 1920s, A.G. Kenyon owned and operated a Bessemer Hot Hall engine, which was integrated into a state-of-the-art system called a vertical irrigation pump, according to the book Roosevelt County History and Heritage. The machine allowed Kenyon to pump 1,500 gallons of water per minute, enabling him to cultivate his family’s land into a 245-acre peanut farm with just one well starting in 1920.

Kenyon shared his knowledge with fellow farmers in the region, allowing them to retrieve water and farm efficiently. Little did he know that by the time his son and grandson sold the family farm in 1979, the property located directly east of the Portales Cemetery would need seven wells instead of one to retrieve the same amount of water and that, in 2023, peanut farming in the Portales Valley would be mostly non-existent.

“You know what they used to call Portales Valley, don’t you? Peanut Basin of the Nation,” said Kim D. Kenyon, great-grandson of A.G. Kenyon.

Kim Kenyon was raised on the 245-acre plot that his great-grandpa developed. He grew up working on the farm and became familiar with the intricacies of farming crops like peanuts, wheat, corn, and sweet potato while also herding Angus cattle and keeping horses. Kenyon said that in the 1950s, his father and grandfather wouldn’t have guessed that the region was running out of water, but by the 1960s, it was clear.

“[My dad] and my grandfather were kind of reading the writing on the wall. Ordinarily, they would have asked the son if he wanted to take the farm over, the son being myself. But they knew so strongly that it was changing and that the water table was going down, and that it was getting harder and harder to keep the operation going that it didn’t even strike a bell with them to ask me because they knew,” he said.

Fast forward to April 2023, a few weeks away from peanut planting season, and finding water is still an ongoing battle. According to the National Weather Service, Roosevelt and Curry counties are in severe drought, with this year’s rainfall over half an inch below average in the region. Roosevelt County Extension Agent Patrick Kircher said the lack of water has almost wholly driven peanut farming from Portales.

“It’s changed. It’s not what it once was,” Kircher said.

When places like Kenyon Farms were thriving, Kircher said the entire process was done locally in Portales, from planting to picking to processing. But, the lack of water has caused a lot of the peanut farming to move to Seminole Country in west Texas, where they have a similar sandy soil where peanuts will thrive with more water to grow them.

Kircher said peanuts still have a presence in Portales but in a different fashion.

“In the last probably three to four years, we actually have got some peanut production back, but most of it is just seed production. So there are farmers that are raising peanuts just for seed, that the other farmers will then use to plant and grow them for commercial production,” Kircher said.

He also said the peanut processors are vital in keeping peanuts in Portales.

“The processors that are here are still a big contributor to the community. Both from an employment standpoint, and from a tax standpoint. So … the peanuts are still here, maybe in a little different fashion than they used to be. But they’re still here. They’re still a part of the community,” Kircher said.

As for Kim Kenyon, who moved to Tennessee in 1994 and became a successful loan officer, he is glad to know that peanuts in some form still exist in Roosevelt County. He offers insight into what he thinks his father, who dedicated his life caring for the land, would say about peanuts in the Portales Valley today.

“I think he would be a little bit melancholy. That the kind of life that we had, it’s long gone and never to return. But I think he was wise enough to know that, just, you know, things change. Nothing ever stays the same.”

Autumn Scott is a great niece to Kim Kenyon and a great great great granddaughter of A.G. Kenyon. Contact her at:

[email protected]