Special Report

New MOA To Stop Pigweed Cotton farmers now have a new pre-emergence herbicide and class of chemistry in the fight against resistant weeds. SePRO Corp. has announced that on Feb. 11, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registered Brake herbicide for cotton. The company says that Brake offers exceptional cotton tolerance with extended residual weed control, providing a great start and maximizing yield potential. Brake is a strong residual herbicide that provides the foundation for comprehensive weed control, regardless of traits. It controls herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth and other broadleaf weeds and grasses. This herbicide excels under wet conditions, providing assurance when farmers are unable to make timely post-emergence herbicide applications. “Having the opportunity to develop Brake alongside the grower community has been invaluable for this new class of chemistry for cotton,” says Bill Culpepper, CEO SePRO Corp. To learn more, go to brakeherbicide.com. Still Time To Join The 2015 One Ton Club Cotton farmers who plant FiberMax cotton seed are eligible to join the One Ton Club if they harvested 2,000 lb./A on at least 20 acres in 2015. The qualification deadline is April 6, 2016. Growers who qualify for membership receive FiberMax One Ton Club

As the Cotton Research and Promotion Program enters its 50th year, The Cotton Board is launching a new campaign directed at producers that will give them the confidence needed to renew their faith in cotton.It is a hard time to be a cotton farmer. Cotton is entering into new territory, a time when prices are low, market share is declining and federal farm policy isn’t what many had hoped it would be. The Cotton Research and Promotion Program (the Program) has a positive story to tell and a legacy to back it up, but it must not get bogged down in the past. So the new campaign is a forward-looking rally cry for the cotton industry, letting the cotton-growing community know that the Program is pressing on and the possibilities are limitless. Fifty years ago, another generation of cotton producers formed a public/private partnership to strengthen research and promotion for cotton. The producers who helped launch the Cotton Research & Promotion Program in 1966 faced similar challenges of declining market share, low prices and energized competition. They came together to ensure the future of cotton in the marketplace and in their communities. There is no single reason why cotton is again facing declining market share and disappointing prices, but there is only one group throughout the world that is actively trying to do something about it – the U.S. cotton industry. Only the U.S. cotton industry invests this amount of effort and level of funding into cotton research and promotion to increase cotton consumption worldwide.

Farmers now have access to the breakthrough technology of Enlist cotton in 2016. As part of the Enlist weed control system, the Enlist cotton trait represents the most innovative advancements in weed control technology for the cotton industry. Enlist cotton provides exceptional crop tolerance to Enlist Duo herbicide — a combination of glyphosate and new 2,4-D choline — and full tolerance to glufosinate herbicides. “We have a level of glufosinate tolerance now that is comparable to the other products that you see in the marketplace,” says Chris Main, Ph.D., PhytoGen cotton development specialist for the Upper Mid-South. “In 2016, cotton farmers will have the option to apply glufosinate over the top of these varieties with confidence since the glufosinate tolerance has been increased.” Growers such as Virginia-based Mike Griffin participated in the 2015 Enlist cotton grower research plots. He understands the importance of new technology and is ready to use the Enlist system on more acres. “The Enlist system specifically has been brought forward to help control weed species that have been unmanageable,” he says. “We look forward to using this technology to help us with resistant and hard-to-control weeds.”

Wes Briggs of Bainbridge, Ga., winner of the 2015 Cotton Consultant of the Year Award, was honored by his peers at a reception last month at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans. The event was held in the RiverView room overlooking the Mighty Mississippi at the Marriott Hotel. The award, established in 1981, is co-sponsored by Cotton Farming and Syngenta. Briggs and his wife, Beth, along with numerous friends and cotton industry representatives, were in attendance. Publisher Lia Guthrie and Syngenta’s Josh Kelley presented the traditional green jacket and plaque to Briggs. “There are many consultants across the Cotton Belt deserving of this award, and I am very honored to have been chosen as the new member of this brotherhood,” Briggs said upon accepting the award. “It marks a special moment in my career.” The Georgia consultant established Briggs Crop Services Inc. in 2001 after gaining experience in several other consulting positions in Mississippi and Georgia. He is a member and past president of the Georgia Association of Professional Agricultural Consultants and has five full-time men in his company that he counts on every day.

Tony Cox always has an infectious laugh that seems to settle into a warm smile. Farming just outside of Wellington, Texas, since he was a teenager, Tony had a lot to smile about during last year’s harvest as he stepped out of his pickup truck and pointed toward his field of DP 1518 B2XF that lived up to the saying, “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” Located 15 miles from the Texas-Oklahoma border and 25 miles from Memphis (Texas, that is), Cox learned to farm from a good farmer and a good man – his father. “Dad always had excellent insight whether he was giving me advice on farming or about life in general. I remember when I thought college was the best career path for me, but he told me if I didn’t bear down and apply myself, I wouldn’t be going to college. He knew my propensity for ‘having a good time,’ and it turned out, he was right,” laughs Cox, shaking his head and confirming his father’s early intuitive observation. So, when Tony’s senior year of high school rolled around, he found himself heading back home to the farm every day after class, and with no regrets, he has been farming ever since.

The expansive fields of defoliated cotton on Davis Family Farms in Doerun, Ga., caused 51-year-old Bart Davis to sit back in his pickup truck, take a deep breath, exhale and smile. The farmer and father of three with 34 cotton crops under his belt was thrust into farming’s center stage when he was only 18-years-old after both his mother and father passed away in a span of six months. “That was a tough period in my life. I’ll be honest with you, I was scared,” remembers Davis. He was a high school senior. Luckily, he had earned nearly all of his credits and had to attend classes only one quarter that year. Davis never played sports because his life revolved around school and the family farm. At the time, his father was farming between 1,200 and 1,500 acres before complications from diabetes caused declining health. By the fall of 1981, he was diagnosed with cancer. “I love this time of the year. It’s a big relief to see those harvesters running down straight rows of three-plus bale cotton,” says Davis, with a great sense of relief in his voice as his son confirmed from the picker a yield monitor reading of nearly 2,000 pounds.

Improved fiber quality, stable high-yield performance and a better weed control system are among the solutions being brought to market with four new Deltapine Class of 16 cotton varieties. Announced on Dec. 12 to more than 140 farmers at the...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack reminds farmers and ranchers that the next general enrollment period for the Conservation Reserve Program ends on Feb. 26, 2016. Also, December 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of CRP, a federally funded program that assists...

Farmers can improve irrigation efficiency by understanding the environmental factors that affect their operation and by using technology to make better decisions, experts with the LSU AgCenter and National Resources Conservation Services said at a recent workshop. Temperature, humidity, solar...

Tennessee cotton acreage is down 38 percent from last year. Producers in Tennessee planted 275,000 acres in 2014, and it is reported that 170,000 acres were planted in 2015. We are hopeful that cotton will rebound in Tennessee and...

The Cotton Research and Promotion Program (the Program) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016. The Program is carried out by cotton farmers and cotton importers who work together to increase the demand for and profitability of cotton. Its...

By Kay Ledbetter Texas A&M AgriLife Cotton production in the Texas High Plains can survive expected climate changes, especially if water is available to compensate for higher temperatures, and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations can mitigate yield loss in dry years....

The steel blue eyes of West Texas cotton farmer Abe Froese Jr. are slightly shaded from the high-noon Texas sun by the brim of his black John B. Stetson cowboy hat as his head turns to gaze across his Lea County, N. M., cotton field. “This field looks good. I was worried about how well it would take the rain, but she held up,” he says, pointing to an endless white blanket of DP 1522 B2XF that could yield between 3 and 4 bales an acre. Froese’s father farmed cotton. So did his grandfather. Cotton farming isn’t just in his blood; it is in his heritage. The Seminole, Texas, farmer will have his 15th production season under his Texas-size rodeo belt buckle by the time the gins turn out his last bale. Froese also produces cotton in Gaines and Donley counties in Texas, while overseeing an additional 300 acres of chili peppers and 20 acres of jalapeños.

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.”