In the days before Hurricane Michael ripped across the Southeast, social media was blowing up with photos of some of the most beautiful cotton ever. Stunning fields of solid white gold. And then the weather forecast turned ugly. Meteorologists confirmed that Hurricane Michael was gaining strength and headed toward the Florida Panhandle. Southeast cotton farmers were racing the clock to ... Read More »
• By Vicky Boyd, Managing Editor • Online encyclopedia Wikipedia defines synergy as the “creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts.” The Internet reference site must have had the Celebrate Cotton Football Game in mind. Through a partnership, Lubbock, Texas-based Plains Cotton Growers and the Texas Tech University Athletics Department have elevated cotton to ... Read More »
Memories from very early childhood are often sketchy and sometimes hard to hold on to. But the ones that survive the test of time will probably stay with us forever. I remember a flying toy — not an airplane — I played with for hours in the 1950s. It basically was a plastic contraption attached to a long string on ... Read More »
In 1983, Mississippi author Willie Morris published a collection of short stories titled “Always Stand In Against the Curve.” The content primarily focused on small-town baseball and football and the coming of age years for a Southern teenage boy. Being an avid Morris fan, I bought a copy and asked him to sign it to my son, Matt, who was ... Read More »
During a recent conversation with West Texas cotton producer Shawn Holladay, he said, “There’s nothing that makes you look like a better farmer than a good rain.” Although no one will argue against rain being the lifeblood of farming, sometimes Mother Nature is stingy with her water. When there is not a cloud in the sky or a hint of ... Read More »
Some memories, along with photographs I have seen from the past, are as horrifying as a clip from the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds.” But instead of birds, I’m talking about bugs. More specifically, relentless cotton insects. A book titled “The Boll Weevil: How To Prosper in Boll Weevil Territory,” authored by G. H. Alford in 1916, contains a ... Read More »
Looking back on the history of a farming operation can sometimes involve measuring the growth in acreage, comparing yield results from one year to another, and calculating the return on investment for improvements made. Another aspect worthy of contemplation is the human element. Read More »
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