Smith summarized major NCC activity in '10 that focused on maintaining constant contact with Congress and the Administration on a host of legislative and regulatory issues. That included farm bill implementation, the Administration’s budget proposal, agricultural appropriations, emergency disaster legislation, the WTO Brazil case, new farm legislation and a number of key regulatory issues. He also noted one of  '10's most encouraging developments -- the upturn in cotton’s global demand and the fact that the world needs more cotton, particularly in rapidly developing economies like China and India. Smith said Cotton Council International’s (CCI) message about the US cotton industry’s continued commitment to quality and timely delivery was reinforced in numerous meetings with representatives of the United States’ largest export customer during last September’s leadership exchange trip to China, led by NCC Vice Chairman Charles Parker.

Smith said The Cotton Foundation’s Vision 21 project is providing a three-pronged approach for addressing the critical issues facing the US cotton industry, with work areas that are necessary for its future success. These include an assessment of the fastest growing consumer markets for cotton textiles, life-cycle studies to strengthen cotton’s sustainability message and a thorough analysis of ways to improve cotton flow. This project, which was underwritten by Monsanto with additional support from John Deere, will culminate this year with industry stakeholder meetings to develop policies and programs that will help guide the NCC, CCI and The Cotton Foundation in building new markets and achieving industry profitability and efficiency. Prior to Smith's report, NCC, CCI and Cotton Incorporated staff conducted a briefing for news media on the Vision 21 project's progress.

Among other Production Conference reports:

John Maguire, NCC Senior Vice President, Washington Operations, said that nearly one-fourth of the House Members sworn in were freshmen and that almost two-thirds of the Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee are freshmen. Coupled with the fact that 16 Democrats who were members of the Committee in the last Congress were defeated for re-election, it is clear that the agriculture community and the cotton industry must initiate a major education effort to make new members aware of the importance of effective and predictable farm policy in advance of the debate on the ’12 farm law. The House Agriculture Committee will be led by experienced members including new Chairman Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN). The General Farm Commodities subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over commodity and crop insurance programs as well as oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will be chaired by Rep. Conaway (R-TX) whose district is a significant cotton-producing area. He will be joined by 10 Republicans with cotton production in their districts. Democrats have not completed their committee assignments but a number of senior members, who are expected to return to the committee, have cotton production in their districts. While the Republican gain of 63 seats and control of the House have been the focus of most analyses, 13 new Senators - four from cotton states - were sworn in. Democrats will retain control with a smaller majority of 53 compared to 59 in the last Congress. The Senate Agriculture Committee will be chaired by Sen. Stabenow of Michigan and the Ranking Republican will be Sen. Roberts of Kansas. While there are currently no Democratic senators from the Cotton Belt on the Committee, Republican Sens. Chambliss (GA), Cochran (MS) and Cornyn (TX) are expected to serve on the Committee in the new Congress. House Republicans have announced their intentions to focus on reducing spending and debt. The current fiscal year funding for agencies and programs approved by the last Congress expire on March 4 so the new Congress will have an opportunity to make significant cuts almost immediately. The impact of those cuts on agriculture programs, including research projects funded through the annual appropriations process, is not yet known. The FY12 Budget Resolution, which will be debated beginning with the President’s submission of his proposal in mid-February, may require cuts to existing programs even in advance of writing the new farm law. It is crystal clear that the major challenge in writing the ’12 farm law will be maintaining effective commodity programs with a significantly reduced budget baseline. Cotton faces the additional challenge of complying with the ruling in the WTO Brazil case to ensure there is no retaliation against exports of US products, services and intellectual property. Under terms of a US-Brazil framework agreement negotiated last year, Brazil has agreed to suspend the $1 billion in annual retaliation authorized by the World Trade Organization ruling pending the outcome of the ’12 farm bill.

Jordan Lea, chairman of the Eastern Trading Co., in Greenville, SC, told attendees "there's just not a lot not to like about cotton prices, and that goes for this year, next year and probably into the following year.” While he said prices could fall back to the mid-80s range on short-term events over the period, the world commodity ending stocks situation is such, it would take a "significant drop in demand and a significant jump in production" to really pressure cotton prices over the next several years. "While 96% of the 2010 crop is sold, I hope producers have had their eye on 2012 futures prices—they've already hit 90 cents once," Lea explained, noting "selling 'dollar' cotton is never a bad thing, whether you're averaging up or averaging down.” He said barring unforeseen circumstances it looks as if demand will remain high through ’13 at least, adding that ending stocks of cotton in China are dwindling, too, and that generally means the world's most populous nation enters the market to build back supplies. Of course, India and China ultimately will see a cooling of their rapid economic expansions, Lea said, with many successful Chinese investing in what appears to be a Chinese version of the US housing bubble – which could someday cause the undoing of the Chinese expansion, but such a situation seems quite far removed from today's marketplace.

Under the proposed program, payment amounts would vary by producer and will be based on each qualified producer's history in the program. RMA estimates that the average refund amount per producer this year will be about $1,000 and is intended to be available prior to the spring planting season. The program has a proposed maximum limit at $25,000, with a minimum payment of $25. The first year of the proposed program will use data from ’00-09 because not all ’10 data is finalized.

The proposed rule in the Federal Register at http://origin.www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-01-06/pdf/2011-14.pdfhas a 15-day comment period that ends on Jan. 21, ’11. The NCC will continue to evaluate the rule and submit comments to RMA.

Greg Frey, vice president for the Penton Media Inc. Agricultural Group, which publishes the Farm Presses, praised the recipients for being environmentally conscientious adding that although some of them have been farming for a while, “they always put the environment and taking care of their land and water first.”