Volatile Prices Highlight the Need to Build Profitability

By Beck Barnes|February 1, 2011

Dr. O.A. Cleveland’s most recent column, found in this week’s Cotton Grower eNewsletter, features a headline that will stop you in your tracks. Go check it out now if you haven’t already. Cleveland opines that cotton prices could climb past the two dollar mark in the coming year. The column raises some interesting questions.

While Dr. Cleveland’s predictions have been spot on recently, this one in particular highlights the volatile nature of the cotton market in the coming growing season. Cotton prices have the ability to make substantial leaps with each passing week. Meanwhile, cotton input prices like fertilizer, diesel and cottonseed continue to fluctuate daily. At the end of the year, cotton farmers are left to try and balance their books while dealing with multiple moving targets.

With that difficult task in mind, Cotton Grower has teamed with Cotton Incorporated, MapShots and Red Wing Software to bring you a helpful webinar on February 23. We’ve decided to call it “Building Profitability” and I believe that title is as appropriate as can be. Our featured speakers will be Larkin Martin, the immediate past Charperson of the Cotton Board, and R.L. “Dick” Wittman who manages a 19,000-acre crop, cattle and timber operation. Both are eminently knowledgeable about how to maximize your profits by making smarter production decisions.

For those of you scratching your heads about what the term webinar even means, I ask that you give it a try. While the name may sound confusing, nothing could be simpler than participating in a webinar. All you need to participate is a computer and access to the internet. If you are reading these words, you have access to both.

A webinar is simply on online meeting. While attending, you will be able to hear our featured speakers through your computer (or through a phone line, your choice) and you will also be able to view their slide shows on your screen. The entire presentation will last an hour. At the end of the presentations, you will be given the chance to interact with our speakers by asking them written questions. I encourage you to stay the entire time, but you have the ability to log out of the webinar at any point. Again, nothing could be easier than signing up for, and participating in, our webinar.