The National Cotton Council is pleased that USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service will be collaborating with the Georgia Department of Agriculture to study the significant increase in seed coat fragments being found in 2020 season Southeast cotton classing samples. The AMS Macon, GA Classing Office has reportedly classed 2.2 million samples, of which approximately 895,000 contained seed coat fragments. In addition …
U.S. Cotton Market Outlook from NCC
National Cotton Council Vice President of Economics and Policy Analysis Jody Campiche gave her annual cotton market outlook Tuesday during the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Campiche discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on retail demand, which dropped more than 80 percent in April, as well as unharvested acres due to drought in the West, and quality issues from hurricanes in the Southeast. …
New Ag Committee Leadership is Cotton Friendly
Presumptive new leadership in both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees for this coming Congress includes two lawmakers with cotton roots. Agricultural economist Bart Fischer, Co-Director of the Agricultural & Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, gave a policy update Tuesday during the virtual Beltwide Cotton Economic Outlook conference. He says while the political landscape is still somewhat uncertain …
EPA Pesticide Program Update for Cotton
The 2021 virtual Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference Tuesday included an update from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs on crop protection products important to cotton growers. Michael Goodis, Acting Deputy Director, provided information on a number of pesticides, including dicamba. In this excerpt from his presentation, Goodis explains the process that went into determining the final registration …
Weather Forecasting Tops Cotton Consultants Conference
From drought to hurricanes, weather is the single biggest variable for any farming operation, so first up this morning for the 2021 Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference General Session was atmospheric scientist Eric Snodgrass with Nutrien Ag Solutions. Snodgrass took participants on an interesting journey from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to what weather may lie ahead in the next …
2021 Beltwide Cotton Begins Winter of Virtual Meetings
The National Cotton Council (NCC) 2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences kicks off the winter virtual meeting schedule this week January 5-7. The virtual platform, utilizing existing on-line meeting technology, will include three days of live-streamed individual reports and panel discussions from the technical sessions along with poster presentations and seminars designed to provide attendees with information they need to help producers …
Deere Adapts to Virtual Trade Shows
The new year already holds a number of virtual events, which create special challenges for equipment manufacturers who are used to having their products on display for people to touch and kick tires. John Deere Corporate Business Manager Chad Brusveen attended the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) virtual event last month and talked about some of the challenges and opportunities. “This …
John Deere Introduces New Combines
Farmers can choose from two new John Deere combines as they look toward harvest in 2021. The company is introducing the X9 1000 and X9 1100 combines, as well as new front end products. Harvesting Product Manager Matt Badding compared the new X9 1100 combine to the current S790 model. “When we’re talking about high yielding, high moisture corn, we …
Evaluating 2020 to Prepare for 2021
Longer residual control from products like Miravis and Trivapro will help growers fight disease in 2021. “We’re protecting that plant longer and that’s what’s adding that extra ROI and benefit because we have maximized that photosynthetic area to put into that ear to get that yield and that’s where that benefit is coming from,” said Dean Grossnickle, Syngenta Agronomic Service …
COVID Relief Bill Passes with Help for Agriculture
Agricultural groups and farm state lawmakers are pleased that the new COVID relief package passed by Congress last night includes help for producers excluded from previous aid legislation. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) says relief includes the Paycheck Protection Program for Producers Act. “The bill also includes funding to allow the Department of Agriculture to provide additional assistance to ag producers …