Consultants are an important part of cotton production each year and will be one of the most important groups attending the Beltwide Cotton Conferences (BWCC) on Jan. 7-10 in San Antonio, Texas. For the sixth consecutive year, the event will host a Consultants’ Conference that includes a half-day program beginning at noon on Jan. 7 at the Marriott Riverwalk Hotel.
The meeting will start with lunch followed by an extensive agenda covering issues that consultants and producers are likely to face during the 2013 season.
“It’s not easy delivering information at this conference that every consultant can use,” says BWCC coordinator Bill Robertson. “Since we’ll be in San Antonio, there will definitely be a Texas flavor to the presentations. But we’ll have reports from different regions of the Belt, so I think there will be something for everybody.”
The Consultants’ Conference became a part of the BWCC program in 2008 in Nashville, Tenn., and has grown in popularity ever since. Conference organizers realized that consultants had become critically important in the decision-making process and launched this yearly meeting.
Relevant Topics On The Agenda
Robertson says three of the topics featured at the upcoming conference will center on irrigation, insecticides and resistance management. Because water availability is such a major issue for Texas producers, the update on drip irrigation and Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) irrigation should be a relevant topic for all attendees.
Texas Extension irrigation specialist Jim Bordovsky will be the lead speaker, discussing irrigation management issues that producers in the state have worked on over the years.
Following the irrigation session, Jeff Gore, Mississippi State University research entomologist, will give an update on the effectiveness of cotton insecticides. His report will be based on input receiv-ed from entomologists across the Belt.
Resistance management has become a major issue for producers everywhere as they continue to deal with outbreaks of pigweed and other weed pests. Mississippi Extension weed scientist Jason Bond will lead a session titled ‘Next Generation of Resistance Management.’
“We’ll have topics on managing new technology, application technology and cultural management, including cover crops, crop rotation, post-harvest and burndown weed control,” says Robertson. “These topics will benefit all, ranging from those who wish to keep weed resistance off their farms to those who need help with resistance problems.”
Robertson says the Consultants’ Conference has consistently attracted crowds of more than 200 since 2008. He anticipates another large turnout in San Antonio.
“One of the things the consultants like about this conference is the way we change up the format each year,” he says. “Anything we can do to help enhance the networking and information exchange is a plus.”
For more information about the Consultants’ Conference, interested parties should visit www.cotton.org.
The National Cotton Council contributed information for this article.