Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. In this week’s program we’ll hear interviews from the Beltwide and Biodiesel conferences that took place virtually this month. You can find a lot more interviews and session audio from these events in our virtual newsrooms for them on AgNewsWire.com. Before sharing a couple of interviews that Cindy and I did I just wanted …
Managing Bt Resistance in Cotton
The Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference featured a panel on a very important topic for cotton growers in recent years, which is managing resistance to Bt insecticides that control bollworms. One of those on the panel was Mississippi State entomologist Dr. Jeff Gore. “An important thing that we need to always remember is that these Bt traits are still extremely valuable …
Beltwide Cotton Conference Shares Weed Management Research
New weed science research from the University of Georgia (UGA) was on the agenda at the 2021 virtual Beltwide Cotton Conference. “We must reduce the selection pressure that’s being placed upon these herbicides in order to preserve our ability to use this technology,” said Taylor Randell, UGA Weed Science student, who presented the research in response to the evolution of …
BASF Presents Awards at Beltwide Cotton Conferences
At last week’s virtual Beltwide Cotton Conferences, BASF sponsored two prestigious professional awards: Cotton Specialist of the Year and Cotton Marketer of the Year. The Joseph J. O’Neill Cotton Marketer of the Year award was presented to Barry Evans of Texas. The award is sponsored by BASF and ICE Futures (formerly the New York Cotton Exchange). BASF’s Kenny Melton presented …
Partnership Aims to Standardize Cotton Research Data
Cotton Incorporated recently joined forces with USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Partnerships for Data Innovations (PDI) on an effort to standardize and centralize cotton research data. At last week’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences, Cotton Incorporated Senior Director of Agricultural & Environmental Research Ed Barnes said the project actually grew out of discussions at last year’s Beltwide and it is really just …
Cotton Council CEO Wraps up Beltwide
National Cotton Council President and CEO Dr. Gary Adams is pleased with the first ever virtual Beltwide Cotton Conferences this week. “Attendance was really quite strong,” said Adams in a wrap up interview. “Hopefully, we actually provided an opportunity for some people to participate where they might not have otherwise.” Adams gave an update on the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol …
COVID and Cotton Supply Chains
The Beltwide Cotton Economic Economics and Marketing Conference included a presentation by Cotton Incorporated Senior Economist Jon Devine on how the COVID pandemic impacted cotton supply chains in 2020. Devine says the retail segment was hit the hardest, building on already declining sales in stores. “I think the transition was already underway in terms of pushing clothing purchases away from …
Hurricanes May Have Increased Cotton Seed Coat Fragments
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 …