Category Archives: Beltwide Cotton

Preparing For 2012 Cotton Season With FMC

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During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences I visited with Gerald Simmons, FMC Southern Business Manager, about some best management practices and things to consider when preparing for this year’s crop. He says the business has changed, especially technology, but that growers should also consider some of those “old” options they have. FMC has a broad portfolio now for cotton that growers can look to.

Like me, Gerald observed how many young farmers were in attendance here at the event and found that gratifying. As he put it, “We need youth, we need some new people coming along to farm.”

Listen in to my interview with Gerald here: Interview with Gerald Simmons

2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Photo Album

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John Deere Cotton Harvest Module Identification

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John Deere talked up its latest application for cotton growers during this year’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Harvest Identification Cotton will continue to automate the production of a cotton module. This is tied into the 7760 cotton picker. The application will use the RFID tags that are embedded into the module wrap. These will be captured by an RFID reader on the cotton picker and then that information will be complied along with data from the John Deere Starfire receiver. That will generate a file that can be sent to the ginner and grower. Janae says it will be available soon.

Listen in to my interview with Janae here: Interview with Janae Althouse

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Get The AgFax

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ZimmCast 334During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences I got to visit with and get to know AgFax with husband/wife partners Debra Ferguson and Owen Taylor. Owen conducted a conference session titled, “New vs. Old Information Sources to Clientele,” as part of the segment on social media in production agriculture. As a new media company, we can relate to that!

AgFax is “Where Ag Goes For Information” and their mission statement is “Make it as easy as possible for our community of readers to find and/or receive needed information.” Owen says they started publishing a cotton newsletter in California 21 years ago. After realizing everyone had a fax machine they started using the mechanism to distribute a growing number of newsletters and information. Then came a website and then came social media. Sound familiar? They work with a number of universities and have developed AgFax.com into a clearinghouse for ag information. And you may not be surprised to learn that they no longer send faxes!

To learn more about AgFax listen in to this week’s program: Getting The AgFax

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Photo Album

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Athena For Cotton

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During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences my sponsor, FMC, featured two products for cotton growers, Athena and Mustang Max. I visited with Rusty Mitchell, to learn more about Athena.

Rusty says Athena was originally developed for tree fruits and vegetable crops but realized it would have a great fit in cotton. It’s a pre-mix insecticide which was initially targeting spider mite activity. In addition to spider mites he says they’ve been seeing the product pick up other pests as well. Since it covers more than one insect it provides pretty broad spectrum control. He says more product is available this year than last.

Listen in to my interview with Rusty here: Interview with Rusty Mitchell

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Cotton’s First Forty Days

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One of the resources available to cotton growers from the National Cotton Council is a pair of booklets on best management practices. They’re titled “The First 40 Days” and “Fruiting to Finish,” (pdf) To learn more about this project I spoke with Bill Robertson, Manager, Cotton Agronomy, Soils and Physiology, pictured toward the right in this photo.

Bill says these documents are the result of a significant amount of work. After producing the first booklet on early crop care the second one was produced. They’re both available on the National Cotton Council website. Bill says those first forty days are critical for the cotton crop. An example of one of the issues the information deals with is weed problems including resistance. He says starting clean and staying clean is the name of the game.

Listen in to my interview with Bill here to find out more about the information available in these resources: Interview with Bill Robertson

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FMC Makes Winners At Beltwide

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During the 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences FMC held a daily drawing for a $250 Home Depot Gift Card.

The first winner Mickey Weeks and he is from Cameron, SC. Mickey (right) receives his prize from Stu Throop, FMC.

The second day winner is Barry Evans of Kress, TX.

Barry receives his prize from Amie Dunn, Marketing Intelligence and Communications Manager at FMC.

Growers who stopped by the FMC booth had a chance to sign up and win the $250 Home Depot gift card. Additionally, there will be a drawing at the end of the year for a $2500 Home Depot gift card and these winners and everyone else who entered are also entered into that drawing.

2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Photo Album

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eCotton Launches MyModules App

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At the Beltwide Cotton Conferences I met Joe Wyrick, President, EWR, Inc. His company has a division called eCotton which “is dedicated to supplying the information processing needs of the cotton industry.” One of the new ways they’re doing that is with a brand new smartphone app called MyModules.

Cotton producers can register new cotton modules and have them transmitted to the gin automatically, with GPS coordinates if you like.

View the status of all of your modules.

View summary status of all of your bales.

This caught my attention since it is available for the iPhone and Android platforms. Joe gave me a demonstration on his iPhone.

Joe says the app electronically solves the problem of getting harvested cotton module data from the grower to the gin. It’s a two way flow so the grower also gets information back from the gin. A helpful feature is that the app captures data for later transmission if there is no local mobile carrier signal. That’s pretty handy.

Learn more about this new ag app in my interview with Joe here: Interview with Joe Wyrick

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FMC On Display

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During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences there’s a program track called “New Developments From Industry.” Our sponsor, FMC, conducted two of those sessions, including one by Craig Heim on a product they expect registration on later this year. Now that’s new!

Craig says they anticipate the new product will have the trade name Display which is a combination of two PPO herbicides. He says this will be a very low use rate product providing superior defoliation performance. He says cotton growers should keep their eye on FMC mid year when they hope to receive registration.

Listen in to my interview with Craig here: Interview with Craig Heim

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A Look At This Year’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences

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ZimmCast 333This year’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences attracted about the same size crowd as last year according to National Cotton Council Vice President of Producer Affairs, Craig Brown. I sat down with Craig to find out how he thought things were going and to talk about upcoming format changes for the annual event.

Craig says this is the second year they have shortened the production conference and added more seminars and educational sessions. There are a lot of them! Workshops were very well attended and in fact Craig says they had to add chairs to some of them. He mentioned the social media sessions which is a first. As Craig puts it, “everyone here’s got something strapped to their hip,” referring to all the smartphones in use. It sounds like the Cotton Council is getting ready to go more “social!”

We also discussed the major changes coming to Beltwide after next year’s event. Starting in 2014 Beltwide will only be a 1 1/2 day event without the production conference and trade show. It’ll focus in on technical sessions. This decision has come after a lot of study and thought during the last couple years.

To learn more about the changes coming to the Beltwide listen in to this week’s program: Beltwide Cotton Conferences

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.

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2012 Cotton Market Outlook

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We’ve had a look back at the cotton industry in 2011 but how about 2012? At the Beltwide Cotton Conferences we got that outlook from J. Michael Quinn, Carolinas Cotton Growers Cooperative.

He started with a look at supply and demand. The December acreage projection was down from the November report. December had a significant slow down in mill use of cotton but expectations are for that to improve. The export outlook is kind of a mixed bag with the possible impacts very much up in the air at this point. One of those impacts is world economic conditions and a lot of uncertainty right now. Exports are good though. Michael has a lot of great information in his report.

Listen in to Micheal’s report in its entirety here: 2012 Cotton Market Outlook

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2011 Cotton Year In Review

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How did things go in the cotton industry in 2011? The answers were included in a Beltwide Cotton Conferences general session presentation by Dr. David Wright, University of Florida. Florida wound up the 13th largest cotton growing state last year as an fyi.

David says there was just too much that happened in 2011 to cover it all but he hit on the highlights. He says expectations were high at the beginning of the season due to the high price of cotton. Projections were for increased acreage. However, the harvest was significantly lower than expected. The problem was the loss of about a third of the cotton planted. It was a wild weather year!

Listen in to David’s report in its entirety here: 2011 Cotton Year In Review

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The Beltwide FMC Team

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Here’s the FMC team ready for the start of the trade show at the 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences. I really appreciate their support and making my coverage of this year’s event possible. To find out what cotton growers will find when they visit with FMC I spoke with Stu Throop, Product Manager.

Stu says that FMC has “placed a tremendous emphasis on bringing new innovative solutions to the industry” and is featuring some of those here at Beltwide. Two of those products are Athena and Mustang Max. Growers who stop by the booth can enter a drawing to win one of two $250 gift cards at Home Depot and also be entered to win a grand prize later this year of $2,500.

You can listen to my interview with Stu here and learn more about what’s new at FMC: Interview with Stu Throop

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Welcome To Beltwide Cotton Production Conference

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Missouri cotton farmer and Chairman of the National Cotton Council Charles Parker welcomed everyone to the 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences. His remarks kicked off the Beltwide Cotton Production Conference.

Besides talking about this year’s conference Charles talked about the activities of the National Cotton Council during 2011.

Following the opening remarks we heard about weather patterns in the cotton belt, a review of the 2011 season and an outlook for 2012 as well as other topics. I’ll have more on those presentations as soon as I get time.

You can listen to the opening remarks here: Charles Parker Welcome Remarks

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Beltwide Kicks Off 2012 Ag Conference Season

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This image greets you as you take the escalator down to the meeting room and registration floor for the Beltwide Cotton Conferences at the Orlando World Center Marriott.

I got in too late to register but will get that taken care of early in the morning. While wandering around to get my bearings I did find the general session of the Consultants Conference going on. It looks like a big group is already here and hard at it.

This conference is really multiple conferences going on at the same time and location. In fact, there’s a lot of sessions and seminars to choose from. I’m interested to sit in on “SOCIAL MEDIA IN PRODUCTION AGRICULTURE.” It takes place tomorrow morning. Some of the segments include, New vs Old Information Sources to Clientele, Mississippi Crop Situation-A Team Blog, Blogging From a County Agent Perspective and Accountability- Tracking Your Progress.

I guess you could say that social media has become “mainstream” in production agriculture today, eh? Who’d a thought?

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Looking Ahead To Beltwide Cotton Conference

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The first stop on the agriblogging highway for the ZimmComm team will be the 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conference in Orlando, FL. I’ll be attending courtesy of our sponsor, FMC. I’ll be getting there after going to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL with daughter Chelsea. Great new year’s week coming up!

The Beltwide Cotton Conferences (BWCC) speed the transfer of new technology to U.S. cotton producers and other industry members with the goal of strengthening U.S. cotton’s competitive position in the world marketplace and enhancing industry members’ profitability.

Coordinated by the National Cotton Council (NCC) and its cooperating partners, this annual forum is recognized as the global champion for cotton technology transfer. Four days of individual reports, panel discussions, hands-on workshops and seminars are designed to enlighten industry members about the latest research developments and their practical applications in cotton production and processing.

Blogging Beltwide

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Katie AllenThat’s what Katie Allen is doing for Monsanto. Wish I was there but it just didn’t work out this year.

My name is Katie Allen, and I am a graduate student in agricultural communications at Texas Tech University. I am from the small town of Marceline, Missouri, where my family farms livestock and row crops. I graduated from the University of Missouri in May 2008 with a degree in agricultural journalism before moving to Texas!

What The Bayer Season Is

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Bayer Press ConferenceAt last week’s Beltwide we learned about the Bayer Season. Basically, it’s about taking care of your plants during the critical first 40 days.

One of the presenters was John Smith, Bayer CropScience director of marketing. He says that the Bayer Season is a collection of products, innovation and people. They’re meant to help the cotton grower during those first weeks of the season with important issues like seed and traits as well as crop protection products.

I recorded his presentation (he does refer to some slides but you’ll get the drift of it) which you can listen to here:

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Custom Cotton Reports For Monsanto

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Stewart DoanWhile last week’s Beltwide was going on Monsanto not only had Kara Willis doing student blogging but Stewart Doane was producing custom audio reports for their website. Called, “Daily Beltwide Cotton Conferences Audio Recap with Stewart Doan,” customers were able to find fresh news from the event each day. Great concept and a very good application for a company website don’t you think?

I asked Stewart if he was ready to start his own blog. Since he’s well known for reporting on cotton I think he could develop a real niche cotton news website and not only would growers be interested but companies like Monsanto would be willing to be sponsors. What do you think?

Learning More ABout Cotton Precision

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Pat SikoraOne of the new product development guys at John Deere in their precision area is Patrick Sikora, John Deere Ag Management Solutions Group. He was one of the guys I interviewed at last week’s Beltwide.

Patrick says that cotton growers have been some of the earliest adopters of precision farming technology but that there may be some not familiar with products like Harvest Doc Cotton.

With the Harvest Doc Cotton system, cotton producers will be able to document and map their cotton yields with the GreenStar™ system and their John Deere 9986 and 9996 cotton pickers. The Harvest Doc Cotton system enables producers to generate detailed cotton yield maps to help them make better and more informed management decisions.

Patrick suggests that growers make sure they visit StellarSupport.com for all the information they need.

You can listen to my interview with Patrick Sikora here: Listen to MP3 Patrick Sikora Interview (3 min mp3)

You can also watch the interview if you’d like as well:

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Headlining a New Developments Session

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Greg StratmanOne of the New Developments From Industry sessions at Beltwide was done by Greg Stratman, BASF Technical Services Representative (left). Of course he talked about Headline.

One of the questions he says he gets most often from growers is about the yield increase they can get by treating foliar diseases. He says that when it comes to the work they’ve done with field trials they’re seeing developmental progress with cotton growers just like they’ve seen in corn and soybeans. He describes the mood of cotton growers he’s been talking to as cautiously optimistic.

Download my interview with Greg here: Greg Stratman Interview (8 min mp3)

You can also listen to the interview with Greg immediately here:

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AgWired coverage of the Beltwide Cotton Conferences
is made possible by: BASF


Beltwide Cotton Conference Photo Album

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