2009 Cotton Marketer of the Year
February 18, 2010 Cotton Grower and the IntercontinentalExchange-New York Cotton Exchange, along with Bayer CropScience’s Certified FiberMax program, proudly present Danny Finch, of Caraway, AR, as the 2009 Cotton Marketer of the Year.
“Since 1990, the award has been given to that cotton grower in the United States who has demonstrated excellence in his marketing program,” said Dr. O.A. Cleveland, a world-renowned economist and professor emeritus at Mississippi State University who makes the yearly presentation. The Award ceremony takes place each year at the National Cotton Conferences.
“Danny, his two sons and his brother farm in the neighborhood of 6,500 acres. It’s typically all cotton, but like everyone else over the last few years, he’s grown some grain,” said Cleveland at the award ceremony. “But he’s certainly indicated that it’s cotton that has always sustained his operation. And I believe like many growers across the Mid-South and Southeast, we’ve learned that if we were meant to grow grain, we would have done it back in the 1940s and stayed with it.”
Finch was nominated by Bayer CropScience’s Eastern Region Seed Manager Don Threet of Marion, AR.
“I first met Danny in 1993 when I managed a Stoneville sales territory in northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri,” said Threet. “Danny was one of the first people I worked with on the BXN system. Through the years we have developed a good personal relationship.”
The BXN system was introduced in 1995 and made cotton tolerant to the herbicide Buctril. Stoneville BXN varieties were the first genetically modified lines available.
“When I think of an outstanding cotton grower, I think of Danny Finch,” Threet continued. “He’s committed to cotton and he’s stayed with cotton through some tough times. He runs a first-class operation. Danny is innovative, forward-thinking and he’s always looking for ways to improve his profitability.”
Finch and his brother Allen are second-generation farmers following in the footsteps of their late father Fred. Finch’s son’s Barte and Brandon are also involved in the operation that included 4,500 acres of cotton, 1,000 acres of corn, and 1,000 acres of soybeans in 2009.
Their average yield in 2007 was 1,453 pounds per acre, and 1,317 pounds in 2008. Even after 20 inches of rain last October, their average was 1,006 pounds. So as Threet said, when you think of an outstanding cotton grower, you think of Danny Finch.
“But we had known for a long time that marketing was our shortfall,” Finch said. “As far as our skills, we were probably more lucky than we were smart. We don’t try to hit the top, we just want to stay off the bottom. When we have a profit made, we’ll take it. If we want to stay in the market, we’re comfortable with puts and calls. We started that in the 90s.
“We depend on what Jeff’s feelings are. He’s there every day studying it. I’ve tried different marketing groups and have never really had a lot of luck with that. I’ve done about as well on my own.”
“Jeff” is Jeff Johnson of Allenberg Cotton Co. in Cordova, TN.
In The Pits
In 2004, Finch traveled to New York with a group to visit the New York Cotton Exchange, and while there he participated in mock floor trading.
“I never dreamed it was like that,” he said. “You have to be bred for trading in the pits. That’s the fast lane. I can’t imagine how someone can stand there and do that all day. But I learned how it works and that was important.”
As Dr. Cleveland noted, the Finches have branched into grains and it’s been profitable for their operation and will eventually pay dividends for their cotton production.
“Until 2009, we were all cotton ― we didn’t even own a combine,” Finch said.
But when grain prices spiked, the Finches couldn’t say no, even after netting nearly $1 per pound for their cotton in 2008.
“We lucked out,” said Finch. “We sold on the way up at 73 cents and got an LDP of 17.6 cents. Then the gin paid us an 8-cent rebate, so we did well in ’08. Of course, we didn’t do that well in ’09.”
At planting in ’09, cotton was in the mid-40-cent range while grains were at record levels.
This year Finch has locked in soybeans at $10 per bushel and has even contracted some for delivery in 2011. At press time, the cash price for delivery this fall was hovering around $8.85 per bushel, again proving his marketing savvy.
Plus, now they have the added benefits of rotating cotton behind soybeans and corn. “Where we farm, it’s a sandy loam with an abundance of water, but what we don’t have is organic matter and a corn rotation is a plus for us,” Finch explained.
On the other hand, he says it’s still a case of dancing with the one who brought you.
“Cotton is where we made our money and I’m not going to ever forget that,” Finch said. “Grains are here now, but I’ve seen that before. What I don’t want to see is the loss of the infrastructure of cotton.
“I’m optimistic about the future of cotton. With all the new technology and germplasm that is coming, I think we can consistently make big yields. We need to consistently make 3 bales, and from what our seed people are telling us, with the seed that is coming, we can do that.”
The Best We Can
Finch understands that fiber quality is becoming more important each year and that merchants can be very selective, but he believes varieties and sweat will take care of that.
“We’re strong on Stoneville varieties,” Finch said. “We’ve had years where we’ve marketed through the loan and averaged 57 cents. That reflects the quality we’re growing. I’m aware of what the foreign mills may be looking for, but we’re going to try to grow the best cotton we can no matter what.”
They help preserve the quality of their cotton by forming turnrows so that water drains away from modules. “It can rain 5 inches and the gin can still pick up the modules on our turnrows,” Finch explained. “That’s helped a lot, especially with a year like we just had.
They also do their own picker repairs and constantly monitor moisture levels and other conditions so that they pick for optimum quality.
“Our gin does a great job,” Finch said. “They never went to high-speed ginning and our quality has been better because of that. We’re old school, but we have the reputation of providing cotton that people want.”
The Finches gin at Kiech Shauver Miller Gin in Monette, AR, run by Allen’s wife Maliesa.
Cotton Confident
With $10 soybeans locked in, Finch said his cotton acreage could range from 3,000 to 4,500 acres.
“But if cotton can get into the 80-cent range, we’re probably going to throw our hat in the ring and plant more,” he said.
And he’s even got his sights set on a John Deere 7760 on-the-go, module-building picker.
“I’d like to trade for one of the new pickers, but I haven’t been able to,” Finch said. “We have pickers here with 600 hours on them that should be worth $250,000, but they’ll only give is $120,000. The new machine is in excess of $500,000. But there’s no doubt they’re the coming thing.”
The Finches use all Deere equipment and trade tractors, sprayers and planters each year.
They’re also systematically working their way into precision ag.
“We grid sampled one-third of our land last year and another third this year. Next year we’ll do the final third,” said Finch. “We’ve been using variable rate fertilizer applications and we use GPS to layout rows. We’ve tried Pix applications using satellite imagery.
“We keep up with new technology and we’re open to new methods of doing things, but we’re not ready to sell the farm on it.”
On the face of it, it appears that the Finches are working their method of irrigation in reverse order. At one time they had 10 center pivots and are now down to two.
“We’ve been selling the pivots and grading ground again,” Finch said. “We’ll be 100% furrow irrigated ― maybe this year. The advantage is that we can irrigate 100% of our acreage ― we don’t miss corners. We’ve put in a lot of underground pipe and we’re able to deliver water to the point where it’s just like watering your garden. We water every other row and it probably makes us more money than any other input.”
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