Farm Policy Challenges Discussed

Foundation Projects Approved

NCC Mid-Year Meeting Set

US Cotton Condition Lagging

Southeast Producers to See Texas Operations

America's Heartland's Season Seven Begins

Sales Steady, Shipments Lagging

The American Cotton Producers (ACP) and The Cotton Foundation joint meeting in Corpus Christi, TX, featured a keynote address by Joe Shultz, chief economist with the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee. He provided some background on Debbie Stabenow, that Committee's new chairwoman, and reviewed the challenges facing that panel for the development of new farm policy as a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011. Shultz indicated that the Committee would eventually be seeking input from commodity organizations on ways to achieve savings and farm program delivery systems.

NCC Chairman Charles Parker provided an overview of recent activities, including the actions of the Vision 21 Stakeholders Committee and the Performance and Standards Task Force. John Maguire, NCC senior vice president, Washington Operations, and Mike Tate, chairman of the NCC's Environmental Task Force, presented updates on current policy matters. Maguire's report covered issues related to trade policy, farm policy development and the budget/appropriation process. Tate provided an overview of several important environmental policy issues. Gary Adams, NCC vice president, Economics and Policy Analysis, presented a cotton economic update. The joint session received an update on NCC-conducted weed resistance activities from Don Parker, the NCC's manager, Integrated Pest Management.

The ACP, in executive session, held extensive discussions on farm policy options based on recommendations from its Farm Policy Task Force and developed recommendations for consideration by the NCC Board, which meets on Aug. 24-26 in Santa Fe, NM (see story below).

The Cotton Foundation Board of Trustees approved funding for 24 general research projects totaling $388,725. Approved projects include studies related to pest management, herbicide resistance, fiber quality, agronomic practices and education. The Trustees' approval followed the Foundation's annual membership meeting in conjunction with the ACP meeting in Corpus Christi.

Cannon Michael, a Los Banos, CA, producer, was elected Foundation chairman for '11-12. Sledge Taylor, a Como, MS, producer/ginner, was elected president. Re-elected Foundation officers were: Mark Lange, executive vice president; Bill Norman, executive director/secretary; Trent Haggard, allied industry trustee with Case IH, treasurer; and Buzz Shellabarger, assistant treasurer.

In addition, Foundation trustees elected for '11-12 include producers: Barry Evans, Kress, TX; David Grant, Garysburg, NC; and Kirk Gilkey, Corcoran, CA; and allied industry members: Ganesh Jayaram, John Deere; Mark Lindsey, DuPont Crop Protection; John Freed, Syngenta; Matthew Rekeweg, Dow AgroSciences; Doug Rushing, Monsanto; and Alan Ayers, Bayer CropScience.

The NCC will conduct its Mid-Year Board of Directors meeting on Aug. 24-26 at the Hilton Santa Fe at Buffalo Thunder in Santa Fe, NM.

NCC Board committees will meet on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 24, and on Thursday morning, Aug. 25. Cotton Council International's (CCI) Board of Directors meets on Thursday morning, followed by the NCC Board's open session that afternoon. The NCC Board's executive session is scheduled for Friday morning, Aug. 26.

During Thursday afternoon's open session, Charles Parker will begin with the NCC chairman's report. Other reports will be provided by NCC President/CEO Mark Lange (Vision 21 stakeholder report) and vice presidents Gary Adams (economic outlook) and John Maguire (Washington update). CCI President John Mitchell will report on that association's activities, and Robert Greene will provide a Committee for the Advancement of Cotton update.

Friday's executive session will feature a number of NCC committee reports and a conference call address by Rep. Conaway (R-TX), chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management.

With only 60% of the current cotton crop rated fair or better as of Aug. 14, crop conditions are well behind where they were at this time last year when 89% of the crop rated fair or better.

Virginia leads the way in terms of crop condition in the Southeast with 100% of the crop rated fair or better. North Carolina is not far behind with 89% of their crop rated fair or better. In the Mid-South, at least 72% of the crop is rated fair or better in all states. Tennessee is leading all that region's states with 99% of the crop rated fair or better. In the Southwest, 70% of the Kansas crop is rated fair or better while just 40% of the Texas crop and 14% of Oklahoma's crop is rated fair or better. Due to the extreme drought conditions plaguing the Southwest, crop conditions for Texas and Oklahoma represent the worst ratings since USDA began reporting conditions in '86. In the West, 100% of the California crop rated fair or better while Arizona was only slightly behind with 98% of their crop rating fair or better.

Nationwide, 88% of the crop had set bolls as of Aug. 14, two percentage points behind last year's pace but four percentage points ahead of the five-year average.

In the Southeast, only North Carolina with 99% of their crop having set bolls is ahead of both last year's pace (97%) and their five-year average (95%). South Carolina is ahead of last year's pace (69%) and equal to their five-year average with 77% of their crop having set bolls. In the Mid-South, only Mississippi and Tennessee are behind their boll-setting five-year average with 97% and 93%, respectively, of their crops having set bolls. In the West, Arizonais two percentage points behind their five-year average with 90% of their crop having set bolls. With 90% of the crop having set bolls, California is equal to their five-year average and slightly ahead of where they were at this time last year in terms of crop progress. In the Southwest, only Texaswith 90% of the crop having set bolls is ahead of both their five-year average and last year's pace.

As of Aug. 14, the '11-12 crop had 11% open bolls. Arizona, Louisianaand Texas led all states with 37%, 43% and 15% of their respective crops having open bolls.

Eleven cotton producers from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia will see cotton operations in Texas on Aug. 21-25 as part of the '11 NCC Producer Information Exchange (PIE). Upon completion of this year's four tours, the PIE will have exposed more than 900 US cotton producers to innovative production practices in regions different than their own. Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the PIE program is now in its 23rd year of helping its US cotton producer participants improve yields and fiber quality.

The tour will begin on Aug. 22 in Lubbock with a visit to the Bayer CropScience Warehouse for an update on the company's research/development, an overview on the Plains Cotton Growers Assoc. and presentations on "Texas Cotton Production" and the "Texas Cotton Improvement Program" from Texas A&M U. researchers. That day's tour in the Lubbock area also includes visits to PYCO Industries, Farmer's Cooperative Compress and Mimms' Farm.

The next day in Lubbock the group will hear a presentation on electronic marketing at Plains Cotton Cooperative Assoc. and tour the Texas Feed Lot and the Back to Earth Resources for a look at methods for enhancing the value of gin by-products.

The next two days, the group will be in the state's Coastal Bend area. On the 24^th while in Corpus Christi, they will visit Stover Equipment Company, the Gulf Compress, the Port of Corpus Christi and Gatefront, LLC. They also will visit Edcot Gin Coop in Odem. The tour concludes on the 25th with a visit to Kingsville for a tour of the King Ranch and Farms and a look at research projects conducted by Texas AgriLife Extension. The producers also will visit the Smith Gin Coop in Odem and then participate in individual farm tours in San Patricio, Nueces and Kleberg counties.

America's Heartland, the award-winning national television series celebrating American agriculture, begins its seventh season the week of Sept. 5 on public television and the RFD-TV cable and satellite channel.

The series, produced by KVIE Public Television in Sacramento, is the only national program educating consumers about the origins of their food, fuel and fiber. The American Farm Bureau Federation, Farm Credit and the United Soybean Board are current program co-sponsors while the NCC is among several in-kind supporters.

Season seven will include long stories on farm families and production agriculture, including the new Ask a Farmer, which gives viewers a chance to ask questions that touch on many aspects of agriculture today.

The first of 22 half-hour episodes of America's Heartland's seventh season will air on more than 230 public television stations. While each PBS station sets its own air date and time, RFD-TV viewers will see episode 701 on Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 8 pm EST and again on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 8:30 pm PST (see schedules and PBS station carriage at www.rfdtv.com and at www.americasheartland.org, a site that also provides consumers easy connections to topics, educational resources, search functions and video offerings.

To give viewers immediate access to stories and special segments, America's Heartland also has expanded its social networking outreach with updated features and information on Facebook and Twitter. Video plays an increasingly important role on the America's Heartland YouTube Channel, currently welcoming more than 90,000 visitors each month.

America's Heartland episodes now reach nearly one million viewers per episode, or 44 million viewers per season. The series, which is available on public television in 20 of the top 25 US television markets, is still seeking additional funding support for season seven.

Net export sales for the week ending Aug. 11 were -346,900 bales (480-lb). This brings total '11-12 sales to approximately 6.9 million bales. Total sales at the same point in the '10-11 marketing year were approximately 6.4 million bales. Total new crop ('12-13) sales are 542,000 bales.

Shipments for the week were 86,300 bales, bringing total exports to date to 171,900 bales, compared with the 432,100 bales at the comparable point in the '10-11 marketing year.