Special Report

Sometimes a man just needs a chance to prove himself. For Bronwood, Ga., cotton farmer Neil Lee, that chance came in 2002 when the manager in his father’s farming operation left to take another job. “I had two years at Georgia Southern University under my belt and had begun classes at Georgia Southwestern when Dad told me about the vacant position,” remembers Lee, thinking in the back of his mind that this might be the chance to start his farming career. The 22-year-old Lee told his father, Ronnie, he would like to take over the position because nobody else would care as much about the operation as a family member. Ronnie Lee didn’t have to consider it for long and said, “Let’s give it a shot.” Neil Lee has been running the crop production side of Lee Farms and learning the intricacies of farming ever since. In 2015, Lee and his farm team planted 5,500 acres of cotton in the heavy red clay soils of Lee and Terrell counties. At the beginning of the 2015 ginning season, they hoped to press 90,000 bales by the time gin stands shut down for the year.

New pesticide regulations issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mean state regulations will need to change to harmonize with the federal rules – but in California, observers expect those changes to be relatively minor. Planting CottonEPA announced revised Agricultural Worker Protection Standard regulations in what it described as an effort to reduce risks of injury and illness for ag workers and chemical handlers who use and come into contact with the products at farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses. The federal regulations will take effect in 14 months, revising rules originally issued in 1992. But many of the regulations already apply in California. Bryan Little, California Farm Bureau Federation director of employment policy and chief operating officer of the Farm Employers Labor Service, monitored development of the original EPA rules and later revisions when he was employed by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). “When I came to California a few years ago, I found that we already had regulations on the books that went way beyond the federal standards,” Little says. “The current administration in Washington, D.C., has decided to beef up the federal standards. In the process, the EPA has made the new federal standards very similar to the California standard and the Washington state standard, which is similar to ours.”

As a fourth generation farmer in South Texas, you could say that I make my living with water. My crops will not grow without it. Our dairy cows will not give milk without enough fresh, clean water. photo Clean Water ActI use what we call “best management practices,” meaning that we comply with label directions, use conservation methods and other tools of modern agriculture. We also plant biotech crops. That means we use fewer and smaller amounts of chemicals than we needed two decades ago. We live on the land. Our children and grandchild drink water from this land. If we did not take care of our resources, including the water, we’d be in serious trouble. It would be bad for our business. Besides, it’s my job to take care of the land. Anything less would be wrong. All people everywhere have a responsibility to take care of the environment. This is especially true of farmers. That’s why it disturbs me some that I, and most other farmers, must oppose the EPA’s recent changes to the Clean Water Act, sometimes referred to as WOTUS. That stands for Waters of the United States. Good regulations for agriculture protect the environment, delivering benefits that outweigh the costs. It will regulate ditches and low spots in the field. Our analysis says farmers might have to obtain permits for the most routine of farming practices. The new Clean Water Rule does not come close to that.

Since 2010, the Importer Support Program (ISP) of the Cotton Board and Cotton Incorporated has funded annual farm tours for brands and retailers as part of a concentrated effort to educate decision makers in the supply chain about cotton...

If a cotton producer has questions about weed resistance, he will find the answers at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences (BWCC) on Jan. 5-7 in New Orleans. This will be one of the key topics of discussion at the Consultants Conference, as well as the Technical Conferences. Obviously, other issues of interest are on the schedule, but perhaps none is timelier than this expensive problem. Most observers agree that cotton producers have made remarkable progress in understanding this situation and implementing workable strategies. But, there is still much to learn as new technologies become available to cotton production. “The good news is that we’ve made great progress in controlling resistant pigweed in cotton,” says Tom Barber, Arkansas Extension weed specialist and chairman of the BWCC Weed Science Conference. “I think our farmers completely understand the importance of overlapping residual herbicide applications. What has us concerned is some PPO (protoporphyrinogen oxidase) resistance that we’ve discovered in seven counties in Arkansas. Fortunately, they’ve all been in soybean fields and not cotton.” Barber says the big concern is will Reflex herbicide still give farmers the necessary control if the PPO resistance problem moves into cotton fields.

You can’t tell the story of American agriculture without looking at how farmers and ranchers have pioneered the use of cutting-edge tools on their land. Innovation and farming go hand in hand. And we’ve come a long way from the first gas-powered tractors a century ago to the state-of-the-art, self-steering models available today. Farmers and ranchers are quick to embrace the best tools to get their work done – and to get it done well. Thanks to advanced farm equipment, better seeds and smarter digital tools, we are growing more while reducing our environmental impact. Major Challenges By 2050, we’ll have nine billion mouths to feed. That’s no small task, and we can’t get the job done without important advances in technology. Farmers today can analyze weather data, manage nutrient application, map their crop yields and adjust planting for the next season with modern precision agriculture tools. Soon, we will be sending out drones to monitor fields with more speed and accuracy than generations before could have dreamed of. We’ll be able to zero in on fields and crops down to the individual plant. We will spot diseases and pests almost the moment they appear, and target our water, pesticide and fertilizer applications to use the right amount at just the right time.

Timing is everything in the cotton industry. Whether it’s growing or selling the crop or launching a career, it’s all about the calendar. And that is certainly the case for a young Californian named Stephen Harmer, who recently graduated from the International Cotton Institute in Memphis, Tenn. More than a year ago, he earned a degree from the University of California-San Luis Obispo in wine and viticulture and thought he was headed for a career in that industry. It seemed like the right choice at the time. Then, his parents encouraged him to consider another offer from a cotton company in Bakersfield, Calif. It seems that the Jess Smith & Sons Cotton Company was looking for someone to hire, and Stephen’s name was passed along as a potential candidate for a job as a trader. After much discussion with his parents, he finally relented and decided to interview with the company – even though his knowledge of cotton was limited. It turned out to be a life-changing decision for Stephen. He was offered a position, fell in love with cotton and hasn’t looked back. He quickly settled into being a trader with the company, and his boss decided it would be advantageous if he participated in the International Cotton Institute in Memphis. The school would increase his contacts in the global cotton industry, while helping him learn more about all aspects of cotton. And, in a bit of irony, company owner Ernie Schroeder Jr. had participated in this same class in 1995, the International Cotton Institute’s first year.

Is it possible to find opportunity in the midst of difficult times? If you are a cotton ginner in the Mid- South, that is probably your mindset these days. It certainly was the overriding theme at the Southern Cotton Ginners Association’s (SCGA) summer meeting at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville in July. “Once a ginner accepts the reality that we are in challenging times, he can move on to what he should do about it,” says Tim Price, SCGA executive vice president. “Everybody wants to find a way to work through all of this.” Tim Price says ginners remain hopeful. The main program included an impressive lineup of speakers, and the highlight was the final presentation from Anthony Tancredi of Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Memphis. Not surprisingly, he focused on the cotton market in India and China and the future ramifications for the U.S. market. Price says all Mid- South ginners are aware of how cotton acreage has decreased in the last few years. The drop was particularly significant in 2015 because of low cotton prices. For example, initial projections called for 176,000 cotton acres in Tennessee. But unexpected weather conditions, low cotton prices and competition from grain crops wound up lowering cotton acreage to 100,000. “There’s no question that these are difficult situations, but our members are looking down the road,” Price says. “They are looking for ways to be more efficient. Most importantly, they are looking for ways to get past this situation. That proves to me that they are truly innovative.”

• By Carroll Smith, Senior Writer • Transform My Community Contest Winners Announced Grand Prize Winner: A.J. Hood, Cotton Producer, Tillar, Ark. First Place Winner: Steve Robert, Cotton Consultant, Wynne, Ark. Second Place Winner: Frank Phelps, Cotton Consultant, Mer Rouge, La. Third Place Winner: Stephanie Miller,...

Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association (TCGA) members know how to adapt. No matter how unusual the production environment or number of issues, this organization usually finds a way to adjust quickly. Not surprisingly, members had plenty to talk about at TCGA’s Summer Meeting recently at the Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas. “We certainly discussed a wide range of issues at our meeting,” says TCGA executive vice president Tony Williams. “Our organization is optimistic and hopeful about the size of the crop our farmers can deliver this year – even though we know that some areas couldn’t even plant.” In one of his reports to the TCGA Board of Directors, Williams presented data that supports the idea that a large cotton crop is possible this year – despite lower planted acreage statewide. The latest USDA crop report pegs cotton acreage in Texas at 5.2 million acres. That is a reduction of one million acres compared to 2014.

The first iPiPE design originated 10 years ago with the soybean rust website, which became known as Integrated Pest Management PiPE or ipmPiPE. The ipmPiPE was a collaboration of Extension professionals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The ipmPiPE offered IT tools, pest observations and models to meet the information requirements for the economical management of invasive and endemic crop pests. With its awardwinning success at monitoring soybean rust and providing guidelines for its control, the ipmPiPE design was extended to other geographies, crops and pests, such as the Legume, North Central, Onion, Pecan and Cucurbit ipmPiPEs. The PiPE design took another evolutionary step with the integrated PiPE or iPiPE. The iPiPE has advanced IT features, including the modernization of data collection (i.e. electronic records versus paper notes) and storage (central database for data sharing); scouting apps for mobile devices; pest alerts to provide lead time for implementing control practice and multi-form derivative products from weather, crop and pest models to support

One reason I like production agriculture is because no two years are ever alike. You have to muster all your agronomic skills to deal with the crazy situations that Mother Nature hands to you. This year’s craziness has been continuous rainfall at planting time when we were supposed to be experiencing a drought. We received so much rain that fields were planted piecemeal as opportunities arose. In many cases, planting opportunities boiled down to having only a few hours in which to plant rather than several consecutive days. This is the first time in my 35 years as an agricultural consultant in the Plainview, Texas, area that rainfall has delayed cotton planting to the extent that many producers made the decision to switch from cotton to sorghum or corn because the probability of maturing an irrigated cotton crop that was planted in June was significantly diminished.So, what’s next? On the positive side, most areas are starting with a full soil profile of moisture. This will be beneficial to all crops we grow. But, if drought conditions do arrive later in the season, a full soil profile at planting will be of little consequence without timely in-season rains or irrigations.

Business owners around the country have joined with farmers and ranchers in speaking out on the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. More than 30 states also oppose the rule. Yet, even in the face of mounting opposition, the...

A new Farm Bureau advocacy website is giving farmers and ranchers a simple way to “Get a Move On” for GMOs. Launched recently, GetaMoveOn.fb.org allows producers to support a national, science-based labeling standard similar to the approach taken in the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (H.R. 1599). “This website has a very specific function: To motivate farmers and ranchers to take action in support of important innovation in agriculture,” says Andrew Walmsley, American Farm Bureau Federation biotechnology specialist. “Whether you grow corn and soybeans in the Midwest, cotton in the South, dairy and potatoes in the Northeast or apples in the West, access to crop traits that resist pests, diseases

The Texas High Plains (THP), largest contiguous cotton patch in the world, had faced an unprecedented drought in 2011 and was unable to recover from the severe drought conditions until last fall. The insect pressure in cotton was relatively low during those dry years. The region has now received significant moisture. In fact, THP cotton planting to date has been limited to less than 10 percent due to the frequent rain events, which would have approached 50 percent in more normal years. We expect the planting to speed up as soon as the weather clears up. With good area-wide moisture and roadside weed hosts in high abundance, a higher-than-usual insect pressure can be expected this year in the THP and throughout Texas. Roadside weed hosts, Conservation Reserve Program grasses and wheat serve as excellent sources of thrips that could likely move to seedling cotton upon wheat harvest or weed senescence. Thrips are considered the most significant insect pest of THP cotton, primarily because their damage is generally compounded with early season environmental injury of seedling cotton brought on by high winds, sandstorms and cool/wet weather.