Wes Briggs Briggs Crop Servics, Inc. Bainbridge, GA While in high school, I spent my summers employed by crop protection companies as an ag laborer. After entering Mississippi State, I had the opportunity to work under Jack Reed and Randy Luttrell –...

I have attended the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association Annual Meeting and Trade Show since 2004, and I always enjoy spending time with this group each spring. You’ll recall in last month’s Editor’s Blog that I alluded to how special it is to visit Texas for this meeting – mainly because of the warm hospitality of farmers and ginners there. And this year’s event certainly lived up to expectations. Even with low cotton prices, heavy rains in South Texas and the challenge of the new Farm Bill on everyone’s mind, a lot of optimism was on display at the Lubbock Civic Center and Overton Hotel. You might call it cautious optimism, for lack of a better term. Texas producers and ginners are fully aware that many factors must fall together perfectly to deliver a good cotton crop in the fall. Every financial expenditure must be scrutinized at the farm level, and ginners will be even more diligent to achieve efficiency. Maybe it was the beneficial winter rains and additional precipitation in recent weeks...

Nobody in Texas expects 2015 to be an easy season for growing or ginning cotton, but the industry will persevere and do its best to deliver a highquality crop in the fall. That’s the unanimous opinion of producers, ginners and...

Now that planting season is upon us, the question becomes how can this year’s cotton crop get started in the best possible way? Most farmers and Extension specialists will tell you it’s all about timing and making sure optimum conditions exist for that tiny seed in the ground. It’s such a simple scenario, and yet so crucial for the success of the crop. Sometimes I like to think of planting season as another version of the Kentucky Derby, which ironically takes place on the first Saturday in May at historic Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Starting the race fast is so crucial for the horse that eventually wins. And, likewise, the young seedling needs to emerge from the soil with plenty of vigor and growth potential after planting.

Call me sentimental or predictably nostalgic, but it is always good to see many of my friends moving on to leadership positions in the cotton industry. In fact, that is one of this industry’s strengths. Strong leaders continue to emerge and are helping U.S. cotton survive through some difficult times. As I was reading about Kevin Brinkley being named the new president and chief executive officer of Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, I couldn’t help but remember those days when we worked together at the National Cotton Council between 1990 and 1998. Kevin was an excellent economist and benefited by working with Economic Services Director Mark Lange for a decade. Then, he and I went our separate ways. I joined Cotton Farming magazine in 1999, and Kevin moved on to The Seam 15 years later. He became an important part of that company’s growth as the world’s first completely online, neutral exchange for cotton trading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5gyWlLwkZE&feature=youtu.be As weeds and pests evolve, good cotton breeding is more important than ever. Deltapine NPE Kevin Gardner, of Macclesfield, North Carolina, says the Deltapine breeding program is leading the nation in its research and development of high-performance varieties, helping...

Cotton Farming wishes to thank these companies for buying ads in the TCGA Program. Their support benefits the TCGA/Texas Tech Scholarship Program. Scroll below for more photos from TCGA 2015. 2015 TCGA Photos

Missouri Pollinator Conservancy’s Future Goals Protect bees from pesticide drift problems. Promote dialogue among all industry groups. Specifically protect 400 species of bees in Missouri. Prove that the state can solve the problem by itself. Preserve bees’ contribution to value of crops. A new program...

One of my favorite trips of the year is about to occur, and it promises to be just as rewarding as the previous ones of the past decade. It’s the Cotton Farming staff’s annual trek to Lubbock, Texas, for the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association Annual Meeting and Trade Show. For more than 20 years, our magazine has co-sponsored this show, and to say that it has been a rewarding experience doesn’t really say it all. Through the years, we have cultivated many friends in the country’s No. 1 cotton production state. Whether it’s producers, ginners, equipment manufacturers or friends of the industry. What makes this trip so rewarding is that we also get to attend the Plains Cotton Growers’ annual meeting, which is conducted on Friday, April 10, at the Lubbock Civic Center. It’s a jam-packed two days at the trade show, plus meetings in the Civic Center as well as the Overton Hotel just five minutes away. It seems that the Texas cotton industry has had to deal with a different kind of issue every year, but this group of farmers and ginners always finds a way to survive the crisis. For the past three years, a persistent drought has created the biggest challenge of all. But, as many had predicted, the drought seems to have subsided, and steady rainfall patterns have moved through all parts of the state in the last two or three months.

Delta’s Justin Cariker Remains Committed To Reliable Crop The facts are clear. Cotton prices are a lot lower now than any farmer could have imagined several months ago. A year ago, everyone felt very positive about 80- to 85-cent prices. Today,...

For many people, the term “globalization” only has significance as a label for business development over the past 25 years or so. In fact, globalization is nothing new and is typified by the cotton business. The rise of textiles, as the first rung of industrialization, the rise of textiles, particularly in 19th century Europe, would not have been possible without the globalized production of cotton in Africa, Asia, the Americas and elsewhere. Cotton, so it seems, was an essential, if unassuming, raw material of not only textiles but world development as well. “Today, cotton is so ubiquitous that it is hard to see it for what it is: one of mankind’s great achievements,” so declares Sven Beckert, a historian at Harvard University and winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize, in his newly published Empire of Cotton: A Global History. Even so, as Beckert elaborates, “cotton is as familiar as it is unknown," a prescient observation when we consider the current state of the cotton industry.If you’ve ever wondered why the cotton business behaves as it does, I recommend reading this insightful history. Deeply researched, highly analytical and well written, Beckert successfully relates the importance of cotton to the evolution of global capitalism.

Mike Lovelace Field Scientist, Dow AgroSciences Lubbock, Texas As with other farming regions, Texas growers are faced each year with a host of agronomic challenges, unpredictable weather and pest outbreaks that can impact their crops – and their profit potential....