Haldenby Set to Leave Plains Cotton Growers

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Sunrises and sunsets etched across the vast West Texas sky. The warm, accepting community.

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Those are what he will miss the most, said Roger Haldenby, as he reflected on the two decades he spent supporting cotton growers in the South Plains.

Since 1989, Haldenby — the current vice president of operations for Plains Cotton Growers — dedicated his time to helping farmers succeed and promoting West Texas cotton on an international scale.

But at the end of February, he will leave the South Plains cotton patch and work as a cotton advocate and consultant in Southeast Asia.

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“I don’t think anybody that met me (in 1989) would think that I’d spend 21 years with PCG and with an English accent be the voice of cotton farmers out here,” he said.

First impressions aside, it did not take long for farmers to look beyond Haldenby’s foreign roots and realize his value to the industry and the region, said Steve Verett, PCG executive vice president.

They proved their admiration for the Gloucester, England-born Haldenby by giving him phone calls, cards and e-mails of encouragment for months after a fire destroyed his Crosby County home in 2007.

In spite of that unfortunate situation, he said, it was comforting to feel accepted by the community.

Haldenby first joined the PCG staff in June 1989 as the coordinator of its boll weevil steering committee program, which worked with the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation to locate, monitor and kill boll weevils.

As he managed the program’s operations, he introduced computers, satellite photography and guidance systems for aerial pesticide applications to pare down the work force, boost overall efficiency and be good stewards of the land.

When PCG’s boll weevil program was shutting down in the late 1990s, Verett created the vice president of operations position to capitalize on Haldenby’s range of expertise in crop dusting, business, banking, communications and technology.

“He’s just a Renaissance man,” Verett said.

Haldenby brought the entire PCG office into the new age of computers, e-mail and websites, and he became their resident information technology expert. In addition, he handled regulatory cotton issues, international cotton promotion, management over the remaining boll weevil program work, radio segments and weekly cotton news reports.

Larry Combest and Tom Sell of Combest, Sell & Associates lauded Haldenby’s passion in promoting cotton in all seasons, serving the community and being a global ambassador for cotton.

Since the markets for cotton are in Southeast Asia, Haldenby said, it was time for him to move his focus out of cotton farming and take on a new challenge: end-user spinning mills.

“I’ve done, I think, a lot of good for the production end of it, and if I can help a little to establish, solidify and increase the markets in those countries for High Plains cotton, I’ll develop a little more good,” he said.

Through August, Haldenby will continue some of his communication roles and information technology work for PCG on a consultant basis until PCG hires a new employee. Verett and other staff members will split up Haldenby’s remaining roles.

“When Roger was hired here, he had big shoes to fill,” Verett said. “When he leaves here, we have even bigger shoes to fill now.”
 

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