NCC Sets Dates for 2017 P.I.E. Program Tours

The National Cotton Council (NCC) has scheduled tour dates and locations for the 2017 Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) program.

This season, Mid-South producers will visit California’s San Joaquin Valley on July 17-21; Southwest producers will see agricultural operations in Georgia on July 31-August 4; and producers from the Southeast and Far West will tour two Texas cotton production regions on August 14-18.

Advertisement

Sponsored by Bayer through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the P.I.E. program is now in its 29th year and has exposed more than 1,100 U.S. cotton producers to innovative production practices in regions different than their own. The program’s goal is to help producers maximize production efficiency and improve yields and fiber quality by gaining new perspectives in fundamental practices like land preparation, planting, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and harvesting; and observing diverse farming practices and the unique ways in which their innovative peers have adopted new and existing technology.

Another unique benefit is that participants get to ask questions of the producers they visit on the tours, as well as producers from their own region that they travel with during the week.

The NCC’s Member Services staff, in conjunction with local producer interest organizations, conducts the program, including participant selection.

Top Articles
Putting the Best of Both Worlds Together

Cotton Foundation President Gill Rogers, a Hartsville, SC, cotton producer, said Bayer’s support of the P.I.E. program continues to provide its producer participants an invaluable opportunity to boost their on-farm efficiency.

Rogers, who was a 1993 P.I.E. program participant, said at that time nobody in his area was using irrigation. After seeing the innovative irrigation techniques that cotton producers were using in California and Arizona, he decided to begin irrigating his cotton back in South Carolina.

“The tour changed the way I farmed from that day forward and helped me do a better job of farming,” Rogers said.

Rogers also recalled that during his Far West tour he heard from farmers who were making the effort to educate their children so they would continue to farm.

“I have never forgotten that,” he said. “Everyone on the tour was very positive about agriculture and the tour was a very positive experience for me.”

 

Source – National Cotton Council

0