USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the availability of more than $19 million in grants to help train, educate and enhance the sustainability of the next generation of agricultural producers through initiatives such as the Beginning Farmer and Rancher...

It would be hard to find a more optimistic group than the Texas Cotton Ginners' Association. Even with a drought again plaguing parts of the state, members remain cautiously hopeful about the chance for a good crop in 2014. Such...

FLORIDA David Wright With crop prices for most commodities down from the past few years, producers are trying to decide what to plant and how to cut costs. Our systems research with cover crops, cattle and perennial grasses shows the...

Producers in southwest Georgia have always been peanut farmers who grew cotton and corn, but the mainstay was and still is peanuts. When the 1985 Farm Bill became law, that enabled producers to build cotton base. In 1988, Georgia...

National Cotton Ginners Association (NCGA) President Dwayne Alford says building and maintaining a well-trained ginning sector workforce is vitally important for the U.S. cotton industry to continue being globally competitive. That's the key message Alford conveyed in his remarks...

Through the years I've seen plenty of cotton crops that were remarkable and memorable. And the farmers who produced those crops were equally deserving of praise for what they accomplished. When you read our cover story on pages 8...

Remember the names of Vance and Mandie Smith. What they accomplished on their cotton farm in 2013 was nothing short of spectacular. No one in their part of Texas recalls a yield on an upland field that came close to equalling the 6.9 bales per acre they achieved.

By Tommy Horton Editor For the eleventh consecutive year, I had the privilege of attending the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Annual Meeting and Trade Show in Lubbock in early April. Once again, it was an opportunity to connect with so many producers...

A few months ago, a significant event occurred in the U.S. cotton industry, and some of us are a bit late in acknowledging just how important it was. Earl Williams, the long-time executive vice president of the California...

Daniel Fowler Fowler Crop Consulting, Inc. Roanoke Rapids, N.C. During the summers in high school and college, I scouted for two great consultants and went to work for one of them after graduating from North Carolina State University. Two years...

Our business is about making high fashion cotton garments. Yet, in my 25 years in the industry, I have never met a farmer or anyone from the cotton business. I wonder if the wine industry could survive if there was no connection to the grape. The disconnect between the apparel producer and fiber supplier is more than a little peculiar to me, so it is very satisfying to learn about the FiberMax impact and business in the United States

At Valent, we are very excited about the possibility of increased cotton acres in 2014. This certainly ties in nicely with our new Fierce herbicide that will help us in the ongoing battle with resistant pigweeds. We had good cotton last year even in situations where we didn’t think we could make it. I am just really excited to see those acres coming back. There is a real sense of anticipation and optimism for cotton producers here in the Mid-South.

Mike Milam MISSOURI [email protected] PLANTING IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER Although last year had a slow start and we had problems with too much rainfall at mid-season, we did finish strong with an excellent boll opening and harvest season. This winter has been...

Five years ago, I was sitting on my tractor in the middle of a cotton field in Frog Jump, Tenn., when I received a phone call that changed my life. I remember it like it was yesterday. One of my trusted friends asked me to run for Congress, something that this seventh- generation farmer had never considered.

Because herbicide resistance is undermining efficient U.S. cotton production, the National Cotton Council continues to urge its producer members to be proactive and creative in dealing with this serious threat. How is the NCC helping? Foremost, the NCC is strongly encouraging its producer members to actively manage herbicide resistance, which is defined as the evolved capacity of a susceptible weed population to withstand a herbicide