AgWired

Monsanto once again took their student bloggers on the road. This time to the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. The intern is Kara Willis who attends Prairie View A&M in Texas (right of Janice Person).

You can find Kara’s blog on the Monsanto website. I spoke to her after she interviewed me for her blog. Kara is an ag econ major who feels like she really needs to get out in the field with people to gain valuable experience. She’s sure doing that. She also came to a cotton conference knowing nothing about the subject. That changed over the course of the week.

I think you’ll enjoy listening to what Kara has to say about her agriblogging experience: beltwide-willis.mp3

It has been a year since Case IH introduced the Case IH Module Express™ 625, the only commercial cotton picker to build modules while harvesting. Growers who used this machine for the 2007 cotton harvest report that it was a sound investment.

“The Module Express allows one man to do the work of three,” says Dan Kornegay, who grows 2,500 acres of cotton in Faison, N.C. “It only takes one person to pick the cotton and build the modules with the Module Express, reducing equipment and labor costs. I’m saving about $1,000 per day by running three fewer tractors, hiring three fewer operators and eliminating the maintenance costs of extra equipment. I’m easily going to save $50,000 per year.”

The Case IH Module Express does not require modifications to existing equipment. The Case IH half modules are 8-foot by 8-foot by 16-foot, which is the same height and width of a standard module but half the length. A producer uses smaller reusable tarps to cover the modules. One person can often handle these easy-to-use tarps versus two with larger traditional modules. No alterations are required to the ginning process.

And, the Module Express picks cotton at a slightly faster pace than a traditional 6-row picker and modules form simultaneously. For more information, visit the Web site or contact your local Case IH dealer.