When I look back on my childhood, it always seems that cotton was king of my memories. My family grew wheat, grain and cotton, but, for some reason, cotton holds the most memories for me. Grain harvest was always...
The little blond boy was playing dug-out catch with another teammate, who suddenly asked about his dad. “I don’t have a dad,” the boy said. “You have to have a dad. Who do you play catch with?” the teammate...
My father’s 1954 International pickup has served as an anchor to help me keep my “bearings and sanity” during all the technology changes of my “agricultural lifetime.” This very basic truck, made of steel, has a giant steering wheel...
I’m not certain whether other farm kids felt the way I did growing up. We lived several miles “south of town” and, when I was young, it seemed like the most isolated place on earth. Daddy always said I...
On her TV show a few weeks ago, MSNBC hostess Melissa Harris-Perry admonished her guest, Alfonso Aguilar, when he used the words “hard worker” to describe Rep. Paul Ryan. Her reason – and I paraphrase – is that it...
Picture this. A future time, perhaps 10 years from today. It’s Christmas morning, and a young kid opens the Christmas gift his grandparents gave him.
He unpacks it quickly hoping he likes whatever is being given because he needs to...
I was born in England, a banker for awhile, finally achieving my boyhood dreams by getting my wings. Airplanes and unique opportunities took me many places before I ended up in cotton country – Lubbock, Texas. After an interesting...
Not too long ago I wrote about challenges that we will be facing in the next 20 to 30 years regarding how we will feed the world’s growing population. The challenges with food and water shortages, as well as losing farmland, will no doubt be of great concern in our future and our children’s future. Today’s technological advancements are moving forward at an alarming pace that is downright eerie.
I wish my grandfathers were both around so they could see how different things are now compared to the good old days. Occasionally, there are times when I reminisce about why I had to learn some things in school. I always thought that there would be no reason for me to use some of the things that I learned in graduate school once I made the transition into the real world.
I am in research. So, as you know, it is a field that is technically oriented. Some of my fellow researchers may be a little quirky about how their research plots are laid out.
In August of 1978, I was two weeks old when we moved into our new house. It was just outside of Princeton, N.C., and across the road from the home of my maternal grandparents.
The agriculture industry is full of...
Texas is known for volatile weather, which can have a significant impact on agriculture in the state. Cotton crops fluctuate with what Mother Nature throws at us, and for good reason as many of our acres are dryland production....
The Loan Chart has taken a fatal blow. After more than half a century of existence, it simply didn’t have the capacity to adjust to the shifts we saw in this past year. Specifically, there has been no way...
When I was about 13 years old, my father gave me my first real paying job on the farm, and I was very proud to become a part of the team. My assignment was to ride on the planter....
When I look back over the years since I first moved to Lubbock to begin my career with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service working in cotton, several things are clear with regards to cotton production in the Texas High Plains and Panhandle regions. Producers in the region are highly progressive and always looking for and trying new technologies and varieties that enable them to continue to produce high yields of excellent quality cotton. Also, their faith in God is unwavering as proven by their resolve even when faced with less than favorable growing conditions in an ever-changing environment.
As I have heard, and have repeated several times myself, “if you don’t like the weather in Lubbock, just wait a minute, it will change.” As we have witnessed over the years, each growing season is different with its own set of “challenges” that producers must overcome in order to have a successful cotton harvest. More recently, Texas High Plains and Panhandle producers have dealt with extreme drought conditions that have, just this winter, shown significant signs of improvement.
This Farm Bill will help keep cotton grown in Georgia."
Being a cotton farmer seems to change every time we go through a Farm Bill. This time, we are going through significant farm law changes, and the market isn’t helping...
Being a farmer, especially a cotton farmer, is a challenging yet rewarding occupation that today seems to be very underappreciated by our consuming society as a whole. The profession of an agriculturalist was once viewed as a noble and...
