Good morning. I'm Bill Wisdom, Group Product Manager for BASF Agricultural Products, and I'd like to welcome you to "Solving Potassium Problems on the Farm."

Through the years, BASF has been committed to enhancing the cotton producer's profits through special projects and presentations which focus on the importance of efficiency in the cotton industry. We are confident that if producers focus on efficiency, profitability will follow. Programs such as CPEP, the Cotton Physiology Education Program, provide information on important production techniques and research that will improve cotton production throughout the Belt.

CPEP has successfully concluded its third year and has increased producer, consultant and extension workers' understanding of many topics relating to cotton production efficiency, including cotton growth and development, the effects of stress on the cotton plant, plant mapping and monitoring techniques, plant nutrition, fiber development and quality, and earliness.

BASF is proud to sponsor this program through a grant to the Cotton Foundation. And I'm pleased to announce that BASF has continued its commitment to CPEP for another three years, to continue helping provide you with the information needed to make good management decisions.

This year's Cotton Physiology seminar focuses on a nutrient whose importance for cotton yield and quality has skyrocketed over the last five years.

As producers push yields upward, potassium problems have cropped up throughout the Belt. Although no magic bullets exist to solve potassium deficiency problems, researchers have developed many useful tools to address them -- you will be hearing about many of them this morning.

In addition, it is important to understand potassium's role in the plant and soil so that you can select the most cost-effective way to provide potassium nutrients, "To Solve Potassium Problems on Your Farm."