Does it Bear Repeating?
March 13, 2009 I repeat myself a lot. Just ask anybody around the office. Just ask my ex-wife. I’d say ask my children, but they weren’t listening in the first place, so how would they know if I was repeating myself?
And let me say, too, that Pete King has a son everyone calls “Repete” (but note the difference in spelling). If you think I’m joking, ask anyone in Sunflower County, MS.
(I threw that in there because when will I ever get another chance?)
Back on subject: What I do now, especially in the office, is start everything I’m about to tell my coworkers with, “Have I told you … ” Then I get on with it.
I first broached this subject in our first post-Beltwide Cotton Conferences CottonGrowerExtr@ eNewlstter and it concerned what I had in my head about cotton acreage when I arrived at Beltwide and what I came home with. It bears repeating, as you will see.
Our annual acreage survey was in the January issue of Cotton Grower and was tabulated at least a month before it came off the press. Our call for ‘09 cotton acreage? 7.9 million. But I left Beltwide feeling better about this year.
Industry reps from competing companies consistently said their planning was based on 8.2 million acres and they were sticking to it. How ironic. 8.2 million acres repeated over and over.
Dr. O. A. Cleveland, a cotton economist at Mississippi State University, wrote in his first post-Beltwide eNewsletter that he is seeing some signs that acreage could rebound to as much as 8.5 million. Possibly even 9 million. Of course, all of this depends on the global economy and where commodities markets are when growers make final crop mix plans. That could be as late as March, and Dr. Cleveland said so.
Dr. Carl Anderson, a cotton economist at Texas A&M said, “The worst is over.”
Take a look at the chart above and think about how much the 2009 bar looks like a rainbow. The most brilliant rainbows you’ll ever see come after thunderstorms. We’ve had our share of thunderstorms, and now it’s time for a rainbow.
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
