Final P.I.E. Tour Brings Western Growers to Texas

Eight cotton producers from Arizona and California will see cotton and other agriculture-related operations in Texas the week of August 15 as part of the 2016 National Cotton Council’s Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.).

Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the P.I.E. program is now in its 28th year of helping participants improve yields and fiber quality. The program specifically aims to help its participants boost their overall farming operation efficiency by gaining new perspectives in such fundamental practices as land preparation, planting, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and harvesting; and  observing the unique ways in which their peers are using current technology.

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Upon completion of this year’s tours, the P.I.E. program will have exposed more than 1,100 U.S. cotton producers to innovative production practices in regions different than their own.

Participating in the Texas tour are Sam Daley, J.R. Howard and Matthew Palmer, all of Thatcher, AZ; Thomas Wuertz, Coolidge, AZ; Travis Fugitt, Bakersfield, CA; Cannon Sanchez, Hanford, CA; and Douglas Mederos and Mike Silva, both of Tulare, CA.

The tour begins August 15 in Lubbock, where the group will hear an overview of the Texas High Plains from Plains Cotton Growers Executive Vice President Steve Verett, a presentation on the Plains Cotton Improvement Program from Carol Kelly with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and a report on the e3 Sustainable Cotton Program at the Bayer Seeds Innovation Center.

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The group then travels to Meadow to tour the Nick Seaton and Anthony Ferguson farms, where they will see both conventional and organic cotton operations and production of black-eyed peas, peanuts and wine grapes. The day ends with a visit to Cotton Creek Farms in New Home and tours of other cotton farms in the area.

On August 16, the group visits Plainview for a briefing on water conservation, watering systems and cropping systems from the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation.

The next two days will be spent in Texas’ Coastal Bend area. On August 17, the group begins at Stover Equipment Company in Corpus Christi for a look at module trucks and round module handling, followed by visits to Edcot Gin Coop in Odem to see ginning of round modules and stripper harvesting with round module machines at Randy Rachal Farms in Taft, as well as Bayer’s field site in Taft. Later, the group will tour Gulf Compress, the Port of Corpus Christi and Gatefront, LLC before touring individual farms in the Odem area.

On August 18, the producers will see local operations in Kleberg County and get a report on the “Status of Boll Weevil Eradication in South Texas” from Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation staff. The tour concludes with a visit to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Marine Development Center in Corpus Christi.

During earlier P.I.E. tours this season, Mid-South producers visited the Carolinas in mid-July, Southeast growers toured Mid-South operations in late July, and Southwest growers visited California’s San Joaquin Valley in early August.

 

Source – National Cotton Council

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