Southwestern Cotton Producers Visit Southeast Cotton and Ag Operations
August 7, 2014 Ten Southwestern cotton producers visited cotton and other agricultural operations in North Carolina and Virginia August 3-7 as part of the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) 2014 Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) program.
Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the P.I.E. program is in its 25th year of helping its U.S. producer participants improve yields and fiber quality.
The program is designed to help cotton producers boost their overall operation’s 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 innovative peers in other regions of the country are using current technology.
Participating growers from the Southwest were Berry Bortz, Preston, KS; Collin McKinley, Frederick, OK; Spencer Smith, Elk City, OK; Andy Carthel, Friona, TX; Hayden Davis, Welch, TX; Andy Bill Fillingim, New Home, TX; Duke Goodwin, Midland, TX; Brian Hobratschk, Littlefield, TX; Cecil Kalina, Miles, TX; and Richard Lange, Norton, TX.
During their two-state visit, the group visited the Bayer CropScience headquarters; talked cotton production during stops at several farms in each state and the Tidewater Research Facility in Suffolk, VA; and saw the diversity of the region’s agriculture including peanuts, tobacco, sweet potatoes and swine; wood pellet manufacturing; lumber mills; and country ham and pickle production.
In this season’s other P.I.E. tours, Mid-South producers saw operations in California’s San Joaquin Valley in mid-July, and Far West producers visited the Mid-South in late July. A group of Southeast producers are scheduled to visit Texas operations August 17-22.
Source – National Cotton Council
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