Notes from the Gin Show

By Beck Barnes|April 1, 2012

One of the great parts of our job as ag journalists is getting to meet all of the colorful characters from around the cotton industry. Those of us in the industry – farmers, ag-based businessmen, researchers, scientists – in general share a unique outlook that is, more often than not, rooted in a rural upbringing.

All that is to say that farm folks are different from the rest of the world. Out of necessity, most of us have learned how to spin a yarn or two, to keep our friends and family entertained on days when there isn’t much else going on. In that sense, there may not be a more colorful representative of the cotton industry than Mid-South Farm and Gin Show Manager Tim Price.

For most of the year, Price does hard work in his capacity as Executive Vice President of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association. But for one weekend out of 52, he morphs into the fast talking, high-energy host of the Gin Show, held in downtown Memphis. It’s safe to say that he attempts to shake hands with every one of the nearly 20,000 Gin Show visitors each year. And he makes time to spin a yarn with as many of them as he can.

But Price and his annual Show aren’t entirely light-hearted and country-casual. Each year some of the industry’s leading economic voices are invited to give an address to Show-goers that is often so powerful that it can move the markets limit up or limit down when they re-open the following Monday.

This year was no different as Allenberg Cotton Co. CEO Joe Nicosia shared his extensive insight into the forces that will drive the cotton market in 2012. The presentation was, as always, a testament to the power of the Gin Show. Cotton producers from across the Mid-South sat and listened to market analysis from one of the most knowledgeable sources of information in the world. Somewhere near the front of that crowded room, Price and his counterparts listened in with the satisfaction that this year’s Gin Show was once again a success.