Super Marketing
February 9, 2012 Spring is right around the corner and most of you are making management plans for the front end of the growing season. February, after all, is a time of year when most of you are thinking long and hard about which variety to plant, among other things.
The winter meetings are in full swing, and there’s a good chance that by the time this issue hits your hands, many of you will be recovering from the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Orlando in January, or gearing up for the Mid-South Farm and Gin Show in early March in Memphis. If you’re like us here at Cotton Grower you’ll be doing a little of both.
Of course, we’ve got rundowns of both of those events in the Ferbuary issue. Complete coverage of the Beltwide Conferences begins on page 13. You can find our annual preview of the Mid-South Farm and Gin Show on page 26.
But in the midst of all these preparations and meetings for the coming growing season, we’re highlighting a grower for his expertise at a decidedly back-end farming issue: marketing. You can read about Louisiana grower Ryan Kirby, and the marketing philosophy he uses to put himself in a position to succeed year in and year out.
Growing up on a farm in the Mississippi Delta, I never gave much thought to the business of selling a cotton crop after it was produced. It wasn’t until I came on board here at Cotton Grower that I realized just how attuned to the markets you all have to be through your farming operations. It never ceases to surprise me how savvy a lot of you “country boys” can be, and Kirby is a case-study in how to make the markets work for you. I highly suggest you read our cover story on how he operates and succeeds at a high level.
We’re focusing on production issues in these pages as well, particularly those surrounding water issues in West Texas. As grower Steve Olson told us, there will be a lot of former corn acres planted to cotton in the Southwest this year. Olson lays out an innovative plan on how to make both crops work for you.
We’ll be gearing up for the Mid-South Farm and Gin Show ourselves this month. If you get a chance, stop in and enjoy our SoundOFF luncheon there.
At any rate, we’ll be there in full force. Whether on the showroom floor or on a turn-row in the near future, we hope to see you out there.
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