A sense of place is a combination of the physical and the abstract. In physical terms, it can be a country, a community or, on a smaller scale, a neighborhood, a house or even a particular room. Some “place”...
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...
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.
Over the past few months with the increased presence of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in many industries, the question is continuing to come up: What is your safety program? As we’ve been working with our members, their...
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...
Cotton Researcher D.D. ‘Dick’ Hardee Dies In Greenville, Miss.
Dr. D.D. (Dick) Hardee, well-known cotton entomologist, passed away Nov. 19, 2015. He was 77 years old.
Dick began his 40-year career as an entomologist in 1964 when he accepted a position...
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...
For more than a quarter century, Wes Briggs has been the “footprints in the field,” helping his Georgia cotton farmers achieve the best possible yields.
Wes Briggs was raised in Greenville, Miss., attended Mississippi State University and later settled in...
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....
