There were a few tears and a lot of laughs as the National Cotton Council hosted dinner to thank members of the ag media for their many years of covering the Beltwide Cotton Conference.
We all gathered together after dinner for a memory photo – click on the picture for a larger image. Many of us pictured here have known each other for 20-30 years! Are we really that old? At least one person with us – the young lady seated second from the left – wasn’t even born when most of us were starting our careers! That is Amy Mohundro with NCC and she seemed to enjoy listen to us old folks reminisce.
Next year will be a different format for the Beltwide, without the Production Conference and exhibitors that have been the main draw for the media over the last couple of decades. But the technical conferences will remain and NCC is hopeful that media serving the cotton belt will still attend to get new information out to producers.
Thanks so much to Marjory Walker and Cotton Nelson and the rest of the NCC staff for making the media’s job so easy. This was only my second Beltwide – the first was well over 20 years ago – but I had a really great time catching up with old friends like former NAFB president John Winfield and his wife Mary. I had not seen them for 15 years! And thanks also to Monsanto for sponsoring a well-equipped and comfortable media room.
Thanks also to FMC Corporation for sponsoring our coverage and allowing me to be a part of this event. I will be adding more posts and audio to this post with Cotton later. On my way now to join Chuck in Key West for a day of R&R.
