Cotton Incorporated has launched a new Web site to give the cotton growing community quick and easy access to important cotton information. Cotton Cultivated provides a portal that integrates Web sites, downloadable documents, social media and real-time news feeds that have been “cultivated” in an effort to reduce the time spent sorting through pages of irrelevant search results. “The cotton growing community has indicated that searching for and isolating cotton production information can quickly become an overwhelming task,” says Ryan Kurtz, Director of Agricultural Research for Cotton Incorporated and lead on the launch of the new site. “The Cotton Cultivated site is aimed at helping users find cotton specific information as quickly and easily as possible,” said Kurtz.
Overview of Site Features:
The Home Page is a dashboard providing easy access to all of the site features and information. In addition to a customized search tool, there are four primary widgets on the home page:
1) Cotton News displays recent cotton related stores from agricultural media sources. You can find stories of national, global, or regional interest by clicking the respective boxes.
2) Daily Monitoring provides local weather conditions, current cotton market reports (fiber and seed), and the latest crop quality report summarized by Cotton Incorporated.
3) Research & Reports displays the latest information uploaded to the site. Materials in this section are downloadable directly from the Web site. The buttons in this widget allow flipping through the three most recent research reports added. To browse all of the material available, simply click on “See all Research and Reports.” Once all the material is displayed, there is an option to filter by growing region and topic.
4) The Resources Directory works just like the Research & Reports widget but provides a preview of the most recently added web resources. Materials in this section are trusted resources that are useful across the spectrum of the cotton growing community. All of the resources in the directory link to an outside Web site.
In addition to the four primary widgets, there is a Cultivated Twitter feed which follows cotton related media, research and extension experts. The tweets can be filtered by region and provide real time information without the need for a Twitter account.Cotton Incorporated is asking for feedback from users of the site. They hope to build on what people find useful and add additional features in the future based on comments received. Please pass along any comments via the “contact us” link on the site.
COTTON BOARD ANNUAL REPORT NOW AVAILABLE
The Cotton Board’s 2014 Annual Report is now available online. The report offers a letter from David Grant 2014-15 Chairman of The Cotton Board. In his letter Grant says, “ During 2014, The Cotton Board provided $80 million in funding to Cotton Incorporated, enabling it to focus its expertise and enormous talent on the betterment of the cotton industry. With declines in overall income, maintaining this level of funding required a draw from reserves of $4.4 million. The Cotton Board determined, however, that a strong, long-term investment in the Program is critical in a highly competitive marketplace. The experts at Cotton Incorporated need the resources to keep cotton in the forefront of technology and fashion worldwide. Our united effort enhances our market impact and helps ensure a bright future for cotton.” The report features 2014 financial information as well as Program highlights and an update on The Cotton Board’s producer and importer relations. A listing of The Cotton Boards Board’s Members and Alternates is also included in the report. The 2014 annual report is available in an electronic/downloadable format, however, if you would prefer to receive a copy of the report in paper or DVD format, please call The Cotton Board at 901.683.2500.
SIGN UP TODAY! COTTON LEADER IS GOING ELECTRONIC
*If you are currently receiving Cotton Leader via email there is no need to sign up*
There is still time to sign up to continue receiving Cotton Leader. In July, The Cotton Board announced that starting in January 2016, Cotton Leader will no longer be delivered in the printed version, only in an electronic version. Sending Cotton Leader electronically will save a significant amount of operating dollars, and also allow us the ability to send links and images along with the information. We at the Cotton Board are committed to disseminating timely Program information and we will continue to do so by sending Cotton Leader directly to your email inbox – so, we need your email addresses. To sign up, visit www.cottonboard.org and click on the “email newsletter” link in the top right corner of the site, directly above the seal of cotton. Once you sign up, Cotton Leader will start coming directly to your email inbox. After the December, 2015 issue, you will no longer receive the hard copy mailing. We encourage all of our readers to sign up to receive Cotton Leader electronically so you can stay informed about the Cotton Research and Promotion Program. Cotton Leader is also always available on our Web site under the “news” section.
Jon Devine, Sr. Economist for Cotton Inc.
ECONOMIC REPORT
Cotton prices shifted lower in recent trading. After dropping through support near 62 cents/lb, recent values have fallen to near the 60 cent mark. At their current levels, December futures have been setting life of contract lows. In terms of prices for the most actively traded contract, values are at their lowest since January. Factors affecting prices have most likely arisen more from the demand side, with mill interest reported as sluggish around the world. Concerns about the macroeconomic environment have not been helpful. Another factor that may be affecting prices is the weather in India. The Indian monsoon season, which runs from June through September, is winding down. In El Nino years, such as this one, the Indian monsoon can be lighter than average, and rainfall has been on and off over the past several months. Nonetheless, precipitation did pick-up over the most important cotton producing areas in recent weeks, and this has been cited as a factor that helped to push Indian prices lower. Since India is now the world largest cotton producer and has consistently been the world’s second largest exporter, there could have been some effect on international prices as well. With the national crop in relatively decent shape, the possibility remains that the USDA could lift their production numbers again in coming months. Whether or not this happens, and whether or not export figures in tandem, will shape the 2015 carryover figure. While the demand side can be expected to continue to be influential, the size of U.S. ending stocks should also help shape price direction this crop year.