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.

On her TV show a few weeks ago, MSNBC hostess Melissa Harris-Perry admonished her guest, Alfonso Aguilar, when he used the words “hard worker” to describe Rep. Paul Ryan. Her reason – and I paraphrase – is that it...

Texas Drought Continues To Dwindle On Nov. 10, the Texas Farm Bureau reported that less than 5 percent of Texas is now suffering from dry and moderate drought conditions, thanks to recent rains. Lingering areas of drought still exist near San Angelo,...

During 2015, the National Cotton Council worked diligently to encourage the implementation of sound farm programs while managing numerous trade and regulatory issues that threaten to undermine industry competitiveness. What about the farm law and trade matters? The NCC helped convince policy makers to implement the 2014 farm law’s insurance provisions beginning with the 2015 crop. We worked closely with USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) to improve the Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) provisions for the 2016 crop year. Based on those discussions, RMA recently announced several key STAX modifications for 2016, among them: 1) allowing producers to elect a zero percent coverage range by practice; 2) allowing written agreements that affect insurable acreage to apply to STAX; and 3) making STAX coverage available for cottonseed through an optional endorsement. NCC staff and industry officials also coordinated with USDA to ensure the marketing loan program would allow cotton redemption from the loan at the adjusted world price to minimize disruption of flow and forfeitures. Equally important was getting USDA to implement a reporting and tracking system so producers and cooperatives could know their status relative to the unified payment limit. The NCC worked on multiple trade concerns. We helped defeat potentially damaging amendments to the cotton and textile industries during Congressional consideration of Trade Promotion Authority. During the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, we insisted that a yarn forward rule of origin be required for products granted preferential access to the U.S. market.

The Cotton Research and Promotion Program has announced dates for the 2016 Young Guns Tour of Cotton Incorporated headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. The Young Guns Tour targets young cotton producers who have not had the opportunity to visit the...

When I was a toddler, I got lost in a cotton field, literally. The brilliant white cotton seemed very tall to a little black-haired girl dressed to withstand the heat of a Louisiana afternoon in a red-checked pinafore. I...

Editor’s note: In addition to maturity zones 6-7 Credenz soybean varieties for 2016 that appeared in Soybean South, the following Credenz varieties also are suited for the Southern geography. View the 2016 Southern Soybean Variety Roster at www.soybeansouth.com. Credenz CZ 5147...

Once the harvest machinery has been parked, most farmers and consultants like to enjoy a little downtime and recreational activities. But before long, it’s time to start thinking about the next season in order to be properly prepared. Most consultants schedule sessions with their farmer clients during the winter to begin this process since there is a lot of information to disseminate. The hot topic for everyone is how to protect and grow the bottom line in light of low commodity prices. In California, water availability still drives many of the decisions that cotton farmers have to make. For example, California pest control adviser Larry Gallian, whose consulting career spans more than half a century, says “rain-snow-rain-snow-rain” is the plan that California cotton producers are interested in at this time. Gallian says competing crops, the price of cotton and trees being planted daily on agricultural land are some of the factors that are affecting cotton acreage and production decisions out West. In other areas of the Cotton Belt, seasoned cotton consultants Bob Glodt, Bob Griffin and Mark Nemec agreed to share some of their top-of-the-list winter planning topics with Cotton Farming magazine.

Charles Burmester Contract Agronomist Decatur, Ala. I was raised on a small farm in Alabama where we always grew cotton and became very familiar with the crop at an early age. In, fact, my mother made me my own “pick sack” when...

In the January 2015 issue of Cotton Farming, Dusty Findley discussed the new Occupational Health and Safety Administration reporting rule. This rule has greatly increased the number of ginners who have to call OSHA to report an accident. If...

ARKANSAS The National Agricultural Statistics Service November Crop Production report lowered our yield estimate for Arkansas cotton to 1,124 pounds of lint per acre down from last month’s estimate of 1,218 pounds of lint per acre. The November estimate is...

Source: John Deere news release Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) said today it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Monosem, the European market leader in precision planters. The purchase includes the company's four facilities in France and two...

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.”

Nearly 16 years ago in the spring of 2000, I wrote my first Editor’s Note column for this magazine, and it was titled, “Making The Right Decision Is A Stress Breaker.” As I recall, I was trying to convey the thought that farmers always try to make the best possible decision when the crop season starts. They try to gather all of the facts and then trust their judgment that they are headed the right way. I was doing my best to begin this journey on a good note. And, not surprisingly, I thought I was making the right decision to join Cotton Farming, and I already knew that this industry was special. Now, here we are in the fall of 2015, and I am having to say good-bye to all of you, and it’s hard to find the words. I have officially retired from this position in order to help my mother at home. She has some health challenges, and I feel it’s the right thing to do. As with any big change in life, the transition will be a bit daunting, but I know that my mother and I will both benefit during this time together.