Marketing

The Cotton Research and Promotion Program continues to support Western cotton growers with research programs specifically tailored to the region through Cotton Incorporated’s State Support Program. This program allows regional cotton organizations to have direct input into the funding...

Although export of raw cotton has become essential to U.S. cotton producers’ economic well-being, the National Cotton Council continues its longstanding work for our domestic textile industry. How about assistance in the legislative arena? n A major effort is the NCC’s work to maintain the highly successful “Economic Assistance to Users of Upland Cotton” program first introduced in 2008 farm law and reauthorized in the 2014 bill. This program makes a payment of 3 cents per pound to U.S. textile manufacturers for all upland cotton consumed. Payments must be used for specific purposes such as acquisition, construction, installation, modernization, development, conversion, or expansion of land, plant buildings, equipment, facilities or machinery. More recently, the NCC has been working with the Washington D.C.-based National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) and key lawmakers to make sure the Berry Amendment is not weakened in the FY16 National Defense Authorization Act. That Amendment requires the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to purchase textiles and apparel made with 100 percent U.S. fiber and labor. Likewise, the NCC, NCTO and others have conveyed to lawmakers the critical need for Export-Import Bank Reauthorization. The Ex-Im Bank provides important financing for the U.S. textile industry and its ability to export products.

By Carroll Smith Editor If standing the test of time is an acceptable measure of success, then AgriEdge Excelsior, which has been in place for 15 years, satisfies this requirement. What started off as a cotton program from Syngenta has evolved...

At the end of the 2010 crop year, China’s ending stocks (cotton still on hand from that and previous crop years) had reached a very low level of only 10.6 million bales — 23 percent or roughly three months...

Hands-on operators continue the family legacy. By Carroll Smith Editor Ginger and Sharion Croom spent a portion of their childhood growing up in a small white farmhouse that stands about 100 feet from the shop at L&G Farms in Southeast Missouri. After...

As consumers continue to incorporate more fitness into their daily routines, they want to be able to wear the same clothing not just during sports but also during everyday activities, such as grocery shopping or to the office. Cotton...

Varieties Evaluated For Root-Knot Nematode Resistance The Deltapine New Product Evaluator Program is kicking off its ninth season this spring with nearly 200 growers evaluating seven new Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton variety candidates for the Class of 17. Three of those...

ARIZONA Planting time is upon us and, as of this writing, spring is shaping up to be a very good planting season. With warm temperatures and dry conditions, emergence and stand establishment should be uniform and swift. However, as you...

The National Cotton Council works to ensure cotton producers can operate in a regulatory environment based on sound science and common sense — and one that includes the availability of safe and effective crop protection products. Are there chemicals facing scrutiny? The NCC recently submitted comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s registration review of specific sulfonylurea chemicals in herbicides important to cotton production. Thifensulfuron-methyl, tribenuron-methyl and rimsulfuron are used in pre-plant burndown herbicides, and trifloxysulfuron-sodium is a post-emergent. The NCC urged EPA to consider in its review these chemicals’ weed resistance management benefits. We emphasized producers’ need for multiple herbicides with different modes of action so they can continue rotating or combining MOAs. Late last year, the NCC and producer interest organizations also provided comments to USDA in support of a deregulation decision regarding Dow AgroSciences’ genetically engineered cotton that is resistant to 2,4-D and glufosinate. There are several organophosphate pesticides under EPA review. NCC-submitted comments urged the agency to recognize the benefits of the insecticides dicrotophos (Bidrin) and dimethoate. These provide producers

By Jodi Raley California cotton producers, ginners, pest control advisers and cotton industry organizations gathered in the halls of the Visalia Convention Center for the California Cotton Growers Association’s 26th Annual Meeting. With 2015 California cotton acreage hitting a historical...

California’s drought and environmental water reallocations  take a chronic toll on cotton. By Vicky Boyd Managing Editor Ever since he was 3 years old, Chad Crivelli — a diversified row-crop producer near Dos Palos, Calif. — has wanted to be a farmer....

As the Cotton Research and Promotion Program enters its 50th year, The Cotton Board is launching a new campaign directed at producers that will give them the confidence needed to renew their faith in cotton.It is a hard time to be a cotton farmer. Cotton is entering into new territory, a time when prices are low, market share is declining and federal farm policy isn’t what many had hoped it would be. The Cotton Research and Promotion Program (the Program) has a positive story to tell and a legacy to back it up, but it must not get bogged down in the past. So the new campaign is a forward-looking rally cry for the cotton industry, letting the cotton-growing community know that the Program is pressing on and the possibilities are limitless. Fifty years ago, another generation of cotton producers formed a public/private partnership to strengthen research and promotion for cotton. The producers who helped launch the Cotton Research & Promotion Program in 1966 faced similar challenges of declining market share, low prices and energized competition. They came together to ensure the future of cotton in the marketplace and in their communities. There is no single reason why cotton is again facing declining market share and disappointing prices, but there is only one group throughout the world that is actively trying to do something about it – the U.S. cotton industry. Only the U.S. cotton industry invests this amount of effort and level of funding into cotton research and promotion to increase cotton consumption worldwide.

ARIZONA The outlook on cotton prices for the 2016 season still remains less than exciting. The saving grace for cotton may be that other commodity prices are not significantly better. This economic scenario requires that each input be scrutinized for...

The National Cotton Council’s Cotton Economic Outlook sees 2016 as another challenging year for U.S. cotton — with uncertainties regarding global mill cotton use and prices unattractive to producers. What is the export demand situation? Export markets continue as the primary outlet for U.S. raw cotton fiber. China, traditionally U.S. cotton’s largest export market, is importing considerably less in the 2015 marketing year — U.S. sales to China are about 80 percent less than this time last year. Thus, the NCC sees total U.S. exports at 9.5 million bales for the current marketing year, down 15.5 percent from 2014. This estimate may prove to be optimistic as the weekly pace will need to increase throughout the remainder of the 2015 marketing year to reach 9.5 million bales. An even more aggressive approach by China to reduce her cotton stocks would be bearish for world prices. That estimate reflects the situation in China where massive cotton stockpiles and expectations for limited quota mean that raw cotton imports by China are expected to fall further in 2016 to 4.75 million bales, down from 5.5 million in 2015. China’s mill use also is projected to decline in 2016. Even though China’s internal cotton price has declined in the past year, it is still almost twice that of polyester prices...

Texan Taps Into Network Of Advisers By Carroll Smith Editor Dimmitt is a small town on the Old Ozark Trail in the Texas Panhandle and is known as the home of bluegrass musicians Smokey, Edd and Herbert Mayfield. Cotton producer Bill Myatt...