For several years, the National Cotton Council has been engaged in activities involving honeybee health decline. Although pesticides are but one of multiple contributing factors that scientists have identified for this decline, these plant protection products are receiving unjustified...

By Tommy Horton Editor It might seem a bit early to start thinking about what cotton varieties to plant in 2014 – especially since many producers haven't finished harvesting this year's crop. However, by the time this issue of Cotton Farming...

By Tommy Horton Editor Cotton producers will once again have many options when it comes to choosing cotton varieties in 2014, but that still means a lot of studying will be necessary before a final decision is reached. Gone are the...

CONTAMINATION…It's an ugly word (you'll hear it a lot in this article). I know it, you know it and the U.S. cotton industry has done a GREAT job over the years reducing contamination to the point that it is...

The central focus of the Agricultural and Environmental Research department at Cotton Incorporated is identifying and addressing issues cotton producers see having an impact on their farms. One issue they recently identified, through an electronic "Producer Priority Survey," was...

It seems like it was just a few months ago that we were finishing up the 2013 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in San Antonio, but it’s already time to make preparations for the 2014 conference scheduled for Jan. 6-8 in...

By Jeff Nunley Victoria, Texas You’re in the middle of a 20-year drought, deal with it! Those were the first words of the keynote speaker at our Victoria Farm & Ranch Show a few years ago. It was my good fortune to...

Mississippi State To Host Row Crop Short Course Mississippi State University’s Extension Service will host its annual Row Crop Short Course on Dec. 2-4 at the Bost Extension Center on the campus. Online registration is available at: //msucares.com/rowcrops/shortcourse/index.html. Pre-registration is free...

Across the Belt, many farmers are frustrated by Congress’s dilly-dallying over the Farm Bill or resigned to a “no sense of urgency” attitude when it comes to the viability of our nation’s producers. Following is a sampling of what our...

Will Connell President, Will Connell Ag. Consultant Inc. Stokes, North Carolina (Works with nine producers who have land in Nash, Wilson, Edgecombe, Pitt and Martin Counties) At an early age, I developed the interests that led me to consulting. I grew up on a...

By Mark Lange NCC President/CEO For 45 years, the biennial COTTON USA Orientation Tour has been extremely valuable in helping Cotton Council International (the National Cotton Council’s international division) in its mission of keeping the global pipeline filled with U.S. raw...

We’re almost to the end of this long 2013 season, and by the time many of you read this issue of Cotton Farming, we’re hopeful that the cotton crop will have been harvested in a timely fashion – even if it was a couple of weeks late. You might say this was another wild roller coaster ride of a season with unpredictable weather in nearly every region except the West.

By Bobby Skeen Monroe, La. Many cotton producers in the Mid-South have shifted away from cotton, some even shifting completely out of cotton for grains. Nevertheless, cotton is still “King” in the hearts of so many producers throughout the Mississippi Delta...

The volume of cotton that gets left on the ground during the harvest season has always been a source of frustration for producers. In the Western Cotton Belt, farmers are able to gather some of that cotton using Rood cotton harvesters. The harvesters use slotted belts to pick the cotton from the ground.

By Carroll Smith Senior Writer Small PigweedA lot of time and effort has gone into developing in-season strategies to manage problem weeds such as glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth (pigweed) and Italian ryegrass. Now, research has shown that applying herbicides in the fall,...