Southwest Cotton Producers Set to Visit San Joaquin Valley Agriculture
July 17, 2013 Thirteen Southwestern cotton producers will visit and observe cotton and other agricultural operations in California’s San Joaquin Valley the week of July 22 as part of the 2013 National Cotton Council Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) program.
Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the P.I.E. program is in its 25th year of helping its U.S. producer participants improve yields and fiber quality.
The program is designed to help cotton producers boost their overall operation’s 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 innovative peers in other regions of the country are using current technology.
Upon completion of this year’s tours, the P.I.E. program will have exposed more than 1,050 U.S. cotton producers to innovative production practices in regions other than their own.
Participating from Southwest states in this tour are cotton producers Jason Dunn, Santata, KS; Carson Vinyard, Altus, OK; Micah Evans, Roby, TX; Austin Harwell, Robstown, TX; Jake Kalina, Miles, TX; Wade Klepac, Sinton, TX; Donald Kirksey, Lorenzo, TX; Richard Lange, Norton, TX; Bill Luckett, Matador, TX; Ryan Mimms, Ransom Canyon, TX; Kevin Mitchell, New Home, TX; Brandon Rodgers, Littlefield, TX; and Dusty Swanberg, Harlingen, TX.
During their tour, the group will receive a briefing from the California Cotton Ginners/Growers Association in Fresno, a tour of Bayer CropScience’s research facility, and visits with cotton growers and other operations in Helm, Tranquillity, Corcoran, Laton and Bakersfield.
This year’s final P.I.E. tour will bring Western cotton producers to Texas in early August. So far this season, Mid-South producers observed operations in South Georgia in late June, and Southeastern growers visited Louisiana and Mississippi in mid-July.
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