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NCC ANNUAL MEETING - McClendon Elected NCC Chairman |
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McClendon, who is president and manager of McClendon, Mann and Felton Gin Co. in Marianna, also operates a cotton/grain farm in Lee County and serves on the Staplcotn board. Active in national, regional and state associations, he is past president of the National Cotton Ginners Association, Southern Cotton Ginners Association and the Arkansas Agricultural Council. He has served on numerous NCC panels, including chairing both its Budget Committee and Marketing Loan Working Group in 2007. NCC staff officers for 2008 include: Dr. Mark Lange, NCC president/chief executive officer; John Maguire, senior vice president, Washington Operations; Allen Terhaar, vice president, Foreign Affairs; Dr. Gary Adams, vice president, Economics and Policy Analysis; Craig Brown, vice president, Producer Affairs; Dr. Bill Norman, vice president, Technical Services; Harrison Ashley, vice president, Ginner Services; and Fred Johnson, vice president, Administration and Program Coordination. NCC Officers Chairman – Larry R.
McClendon., Marianna, Ark., Ginner Vice Presidents Robert W. Norris, Bakersfield,
Calif., Cooperative NCC Directors Producers – Chuck Lee, Pembroke, Ga.; C.B. “Chuck” Coley, Vienna, Ga.; Bowen Flowers, Tunica, Miss.; Rickey L. Bearden, Plains, Texas; and Donald J. Cameron, Helm, Calif. Ginners – H. Burt Rickenbaker Jr., Davis Station, S.C.; Sledge Taylor, Como, Miss.; Chris W. Breedlove, Olton, Texas; Stanley R. Creelman, Tulare, Calif.; and Gary D. Feist, Anthony, Kan. Warehousemen – Dane Jones, Bakersfield, Calif.; Robert Snodgrass, Taylor, Texas; W. Coalter Paxton, III, Wilson, N.C.; Rick Willis, Brownfield, Texas; and Jay T. Cowart, Altus, Okla. Merchants – Andy Weil, III, Montgomery, Ala.; Dale Grounds, Richardson, Texas; Manfred Schiefer, Lubbock, Texas; Gary W. Taylor, Cordova, Tenn.; and G.W. Winburne, Phoenix, Ariz. Cottonseed – John C. Fricke, Pine Bluff, Ark.; Edgar H. Lawton, III, Darlington, S.C.; J. Scott Middleton, Jonestown, Miss.; Robert L. Lacy, Jr., Lubbock, Texas; and John Walth, Fresno, Calif. Cooperatives – Meredith B. Allen, Greenwood, Miss.; Wallace L. Darneille, Lubbock, Texas; Kirby O. Powell, Jackson, Tenn.; Jarral Neeper, Bakersfield, Calif.; and Michael Quinn, Garner, N.C. Manufacturers – Robert H. Chapman III, Inman, S.C.; W. Anderson D. Warlick, Gastonia, N.C.; Werner Bieri, Jefferson, Ga.; Texas; Vernon C. Tyson, Jr., Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Malloy Evans, Cheraw, S.C.
C.B. “Chuck” Coley, a producer from Vienna, Ga., was elected chairman of the American Cotton Producers. He succeeds Louisiana producer Jay Hardwick who is NCC vice chairman. Coley has served on numerous ACP and NCC committees, including the ACP’s Payment Limit Eligibility Task Force and the NCC’s Marketing Loan Working Group. He also is serving on the Council’s Farm Policy Working Group and its Doha Strategy Task Force. Rick Bransford, Lonoke, Ark., was elected as a vice chairman. Re-elected as vice chairmen were Clyde T. Sharp, Roll, Ariz.; and Danny Davis, Elk City, Okla. Chuck Lee, Pembroke, Ga., was elected as the Southeast regional director.
ACP State Chairmen Alabama
– Neal Isbell, Muscle Shoals, and Walter L. Corcoran, Jr., Eufaula
Robert S. Weil, II, a Montgomery, Ala., cotton merchant, will serve as 2008 president of Cotton Council International (CCI), the NCC’s export promotions arm. Weil is CEO of Weil Brothers-Cotton, Inc. He is a former NCC delegate and serves on the NCC’s Doha Strategy Task Force, International Trade Policy Committee and Farm Policy Development Task Force. Other CCI officers elected for 2008 are: first vice president, Clyde T. Sharp, producer, Roll, Ariz.; second vice president, Wallace L. Darneille, cooperative, Lubbock, Texas; and treasurer, John D. Mitchell, merchant, Cordova, Tenn. CCI Directors Producers – Donald J. Cameron, Helm, Calif.; Jack Dailey, Ft. Necessity, La.; Dahlen K. Hancock, New Home, Texas; Richard Kelley, Burlison, Tenn.; Cliett A. Lowman, III, Kingsville, Texas; James W. Webb, Leary, Ga.; and Rickey L. Bearden, Plains, Texas Ginners – Thomas S. “Sid” Brough, Edroy, Texas; and Clark Carter, Rolling Fork, Miss. Merchants – Dale Grounds, Dallas, Texas; Manfred Schiefer, Lubbock, Texas; Adolph Weil, III, Montgomery, Ala.; and G.William “Bill” Winburne, Phoenix, Ariz.; and T. Jordan Lea, Greenville, S.C. Cooperatives – John Burch, Bakersfield, Calif.; David L. Hand, El Paso, Texas; and Lonnie D. Winters, Lubbock, Texas; Cottonseed: Gail Kring, Lubbock, Texas Warehousemen – Vance C. Shoaf, Milan, Tenn. Manufacturers – Harding Stowe, Belmont, N.C.; Werner Bieri, manufacturer, Jefferson, Ga.
The Memphis-based National Cotton Ginners Association (NCGA) elected it officers for 2008 at the NCC annual meeting. The officers include: president, Chris Breedlove, who is manager of the Olton Coop Gin in Olton, Texas; first vice president, Sledge Taylor, Como, Miss.; second vice president, Kirk Gilkey, Corcoran, Calif.; third vice president, Kent Fountain, Surrency, Ga., and chairman, Van Murphy, Quitman, Ga. Harrison Ashley of Memphis serves as NCGA’s executive vice president. In addition, Curtis Griffith of Morton, Texas, was named the 2007 Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year and National Cotton Council (NCC) Vice President Bill Norman is the recipient of NCGA’s 2007-2008 Distinguished Service Award. Producers To Plant 9.5 Million Acres U.S. cotton producers intend to plant 9.5 million acres of cotton this spring, down almost 12 percent from 2007, according to the National Cotton Council’s 25th Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey. Upland cotton intentions are 9.32 million acres, a decrease of 11.6 percent from 2007. Extra long staple (ELS) intentions of 231,000 acres represent a 21.1 percent decrease from 2007. Assuming an average abandonment rate, total upland and ELS harvested area would be about 8.76 million acres. Applying state-level yield assumptions to projected harvested acres generates a crop of about 15.38 million bales. This compares to 2007’s total production of 19.03 million bales. Assuming average seed-to-lint ratios, 2008 cottonseed production is projected at 5.28 million tons, down from 6.60 million last year. Based on survey results, the Southeast, Mid-South, Southwest and Far West show intended upland cotton planting decreases of 12 percent, 26 percent, 2 percent and 39 percent, respectively. The NCC survey was mailed in mid-December of 2007 to about 40 percent of the producers across the Belt. Survey responses were collected through mid-January. Hood Receives Baker Award Mississippi cotton producer/ginner Kenneth Hood is the recipient of the 2007 Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award. The Baker Award, named for the late California industry leader and NCC President Harry S. Baker, is presented annually to a deserving individual who has provided extraordinary service, leadership and dedication to the U.S. cotton industry. Since 1962, Hood has been a partner in Perth-shire Farms, a 12,000 acre cotton, soybean, peanut, grain sorghum and wheat operation in the Mississippi Delta community of Gunnison. He also is involved in H.B. Hood and Sons Gins, Hood Equipment Co. and InTime Inc., an aerial imagery-based precision farming service. Reaching well beyond his operations, Hood’s resume is a profile of exceptional leadership and dedicated service to agriculture. He was NCC chairman in 2002, and is a past president of the National Cotton Ginners Association, Southern Cotton Ginners Association and the Delta Council. Lifetime Award Honors Mann The late Arkansas cotton ginner Lon Mann is the recipient of the 2007 Oscar Johnston Lifetime Achievement Award. Accepting the award on behalf of the family was Mr. Mann’s wife, June Mann. The annual award is presented to an individual, now deceased, who served the cotton industry, through the NCC, over a significant period of his or her active business career. Recognizing more than office or position held, the award honors someone who, like Mann, exerted a positive influence on the industry and who demonstrated character and integrity as well as perseverance and maturation during that service. Mann is the ninth individual to be honored with this award. Mr. Mann, who was a partner in McClendon, Mann & Felton Gin Company in Marianna, Ark., was a graduate of the University of Arkansas and a third generation ginner and farmer who was very involved in the ginning business his entire adult life. He was a leader in the revitalization of the National Cotton Ginners Association (NCGA) and was a past president of that organization as well as the Southern Cotton Ginners Association and the Arkansas Agricultural Council. He served as the NCC’s 27th president in 1978 – only the third ginner at that point to hold the top NCC post. He also was a key player in the Cotton Producers Institute, the predecessor to Cotton Incorporated and served on the Cotton Board for more than 12 years. Among the many awards Mr. Mann received during his lifetime was the NCC’s Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award and the NCGA’s Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year Award. Many in the cotton industry considered Mr. Mann to be the quintessential Southern gentleman and a pillar of the U.S. cotton industry. The partnership he formed
with Larry McClendon (the NCC’s newly-elected 2008 chairman) and
the Felton family is indicative of his forward thinking and his quest
for progress.
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