Lifetime Achievement Award Arizona Ginner Honored The late Charles C. Owen, an Arizona ginner whose career was marked by his strong desire to advance the U.S. cotton industry through quality preservation, research, employee education and outreach to U.S. cotton’s customers,...

Southern Southeastern ANNUAL MEETING By Carroll Smith Editor Southeast cotton producers and ginners gathered in Charlotte, N.C., prior to the beginning of the 2017 season to meet and share ideas about how to address important issues that affect the industry on...

Alabama Farmer Anticipates 69th Crop By Carroll Smith Editor When referencing events that happened almost a century ago, most people preface their anecdotes with, “I have a photograph.” Otis Shiver begins his stories with, “I remember….” This 93-year-old cotton farmer was born...

The NCC’s 2017 Economic Outlook was presented at the organization’s annual meeting in February. The National Cotton Council’s priorities for 2017 range from exploring all opportunities to improve cotton’s safety net to aggressively working to ease the regulatory burdens facing...

As the 2017 season gets underway, I am delighted and impressed by the “wow factor” reverberating throughout the cotton industry. One of the most exciting prospects is the cotton acreage increase expected across the Belt. According to the National...

The National Agricultural Statistics Service October Crop Production report estimated Arkansas cotton production to be at 1,088 pounds lint per acre, unchanged from last month but down 4 pounds from 2015. This exceeds our 5-year average of 1,073 pounds lint per acre by 15 pounds. Our crop continues to be ahead of schedule. As about half of our crop has been harvested this season, the 5-year average for the same date was just shy of 30 percent harvested. Reports of fiber quality have been good. Lack of rainfall during much of the harvest season has resulted in excellent color grades. Just over 45 percent has received a color grade of 31 or better. About 80 percent of the bales classed have a leaf grade of 4 or less. Micronaire values this season have averaged 4.6 with less than 17 percent in the discount range of 5 or greater. In Arkansas, we generally expect to see our early crop outyield our later crop. This is not what most farmers are experiencing this season. The extended wet and cloudy August weather came just as our early crop was starting to open. Reports of 1.25 to 1.5 bales per acre were heard from our early cotton as the occurrence of boll rot and hard lock was great. Fortunately, yields improved as harvest progressed. Our good fields are yielding in excess of 3 bales per acre. The 4-bale yield potential we had in many fields the first part of August slipped away.

Although I was not raised on a farm nor from a farming family, I always loved animals, especially cows and horses. I considered myself a cowboy and planned to major in pre-veterinary medicine when I started college at the...

By Carroll Smith, Editor For more than six decades, a major stop along the way to a new cotton farming season is the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show. This year’s event will be held at the Cook Convention Center in...

Decision-Making Help From managing a pest flare-up to maximizing yield and quality under extreme weather, cotton producers can get valuable decision-making help from the annual National Cotton Council-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences (BWCC). How is information presented at the BWCC? Individual research reports,...

By Blair Fannin, Texas A&M AgriLife The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas Plant Protection Association have collaborated on a Flag the Technology program that identifies crop fields tolerant to certain herbicides. With two new herbicide-resistant technologies that will...

By Carroll Smith, Editor For the past century, Johnny Griffin’s family ties are woven into the fabric that is North Carolina agriculture. During the early part of that era, cotton and tobacco were grown as cash crops primarily by tenant...

By Kevin Hecteman Editor’s note: An article published in an earlier edition of Cotton Farming inaccurately stated the current minimum wage in California. The following article and charts reflect the accurate numbers. Right about the time most bleary-eyed revelers were yelling...

Aaron Martinka Editor’s note: Cotton Farming editor Carroll Smith went into the field this fall to capture the story of farmers’ experiences with the new Deltapine Bollgard II XtendFlex varieties. Following is her special report. Texas cotton producer Aaron Martinka, who...

By Carroll Smith, Editor Cody Ewing farms with his grandfather, Jerry Marsh, in Blount County, Ala., between Huntsville and Birmingham. Marsh began farming cotton many years ago, ventured into soybeans in the 1980s, and later tried his hand at fruits and...

As a Louisiana woman who cherishes so many memories of cotton, it was startling to me to see the once-white landscape give way to other crops in 2007. It wasn’t that I had never seen soybeans before. My Dad...