The Business of Beltwide
February 13, 2012 As the manager of cotton agronomy, physiology and soils for the National Cotton Council, Bill Robertson tends to wear a lot of hats around the office and out in the field. In between working on projects to benefit farmers and answering requests from various media members, he also does a great deal of event planning.
And as Robertson will tell you, the biggest event he plans each year is the NCC’s largest annual undertaking – the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Now in his fifth year of organizing the Beltwide, Robertson says the task of providing growers from across the nation with an entertaining and worthwhile experience is a rewarding one. The idea, he says, is to provide a program that is going to have a real-world impact on how attendees manage their cotton operations.
Since he has years of experience under his belt, Robertson knows how to begin putting together such a program.
“We just have our ear to the ground and listen to producers. We listen to Extension folks, University researchers, USDA folks and consultants. We try to put together a program that really addresses the needs that they have,” Robertson says. “Every year is different. A straight cookie-cutter approach really isn’t what we need to do. We do a lot of listening.”
As Robertson explains, one goal he and the NCC have in mind every year is to address the issues that growers are facing at the time. Major headlines from 2011 – issues such as glyphosate resistance and the destructive weather – will receive plenty of attention this year.
One constant issue that growers have been highly interested in through the years has been the cotton market, however. The world of cotton marketing is examined in-depth each year at the Beltwide Conferences during the Production Conference General Session, and this year is no different.
J. Michael Quinn, the President and CEO of Carolina Cotton Growers Cooperative, will be the featured speaker during the 2012 Cotton Market Outlook this year. Robertson says growers will be dialed in for Quinn’s presentation in light of the bull market cotton has experienced over the past year.
“I think they’ll be very interested because of the landscape we have here, across the Cotton Belt. Growers are wanting to know how many acres they’ll want to plant in 2012, and they have a number of different decisions to make that are impacted by the market, so they’ll want to do as much homework as they can,” Robertson says.
The NCC has also seen some renewed interest in planting conventional varieties in recent years. In response, Robertson and other organizers have devoted a workshop to conventional cotton production.
“In that workshop, we’ll examine some of our pest-management decisions. We’ll talk about insect control without Bt and then we’ll talk about unconventional weed control in conventional cotton with Ken Smith,” Robertson says. “I’ve visited with a number of farmers this year that say there are a lot of things they had forgotten about in terms of conventional programs. So this will be very helpful.”
The Beltwide Cotton Conferences will be held from Jan 3-6, 2012, in Orlando, FL.
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