Southeast Cotton Producers Visit Mid-South for P.I.E. Tour
July 22, 2016 Thirteen cotton producers from the Southeast will see cotton operations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee on July 24-28 as part of the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) 2016 Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) program.
Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the P.I.E. program is now in its 28th year of helping participants improve yields and fiber quality. The program specifically aims to help its participants boost their overall farming operation 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 peers are using current technology.
Upon completion of this year’s tours, the P.I.E. program will have exposed more than 1,100 U.S. cotton producers to innovative production practices in regions different than their own.
Participating in the tour are Will Counts and Pricie Counts, IV, both of Tuscumbia, AL; Jamie Brannen and J.D. Newton, both of Statesboro, GA; Brent Collins, Camilla, GA; John Hanna, Donalsonville, GA; Clay Pirkle, Sycamore, GA; Kollin Pyle, Blakely, GA; Henry Sumner and Morgan Young, both of Sumner, GA; David Smith, Jr., Oak City, NC; Jim Williams, Camden, SC; and Joey Barlow, III, Smithfield, VA.
The group begins in Memphis on July 25 with a tour of Bayer’s genetics greenhouse and a presentation on cotton trait introgression, before getting a presentation on dredging and river commerce at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers MS River Ship Yard. That afternoon, they will tour the Grammy Museum Mississippi in Cleveland, MS.
The group also will spend the next day in the Mississippi Delta. While in Stoneville, they will get an overview of the Delta Council and Delta cotton production and a presentation on the research complex at the Delta Research and Extension Center before touring the Delta Branch Experiment Station. That afternoon, they will tour individual cotton farms in the area.
On July 27, the participants will travel to Lake Providence, LA, to learn about hot sauce production at Panola Pepper Company, then hear about continuous no-till and cover crop use during a tour of Robbie Howard’s farms. They also will tour the Louisiana Cotton Museum and the Port of Lake Providence.
The tour ends on July 28 with a visit to Somerset Plantation in Newellton, LA, for a drone demonstration and presentations on water management and black bear habitat by Jay Hardwick, Marshall Hardwick and Meade Hardwick. The group also will hear about the use of beds for rice production from Ben Guthrie, a Newellton cotton and rice producer, before touring individual cotton farms in the Newellton area.
Two other P.I.E. tours are scheduled for this season. Southwest producers will tour California’s San Joaquin Valley on July 31-August 5, and Western producers will see operations in two of Texas’ cotton production regions on August 14-19. Mid-South producers visited the Carolinas in mid-July.
Source – National Cotton Council
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