Mid-South Cotton Producers to See Texas Operations

Ten cotton producers from the Mid-South will see cotton and other agriculture-related operations in Texas on July 26-30 as part of the 2015 National Cotton Council’s Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.).

July 31, 2015
Contact: Marjory Walker
(901) 274-9030

MEMPHIS – Ten cotton producers from the Mid-South will see cotton and other agriculture-related operations in Texas on July 26-30 as part of the 2015 National Cotton Council's Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.).

Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the P.I.E. program is in its 27th year of helping its U.S. producer participants improve yields and fiber quality.The program aims to help cotton producers boost their overall operation's efficiency by: 1) gaining new perspectives in such fundamental practices as land preparation, planting, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and harvesting and 2) observing the unique ways in which their innovative peers are using current technology.

The tour participants are: Arkansas – Cameron Boyd, Jonesboro; Louisiana – Adam Lemoine, Moreauville; and Victor Lemoine, Cottonport; Mississippi George Jeffords, Jr., Greenwood; Bill Skinner and Bill Skinner, Jr., both of Macon; and Gerald White, Marks; and Tennessee Jason Luckey, Humboldt; Freeman Smith, Brownsville; and Andrew Zarecor, Newbern.

The Southwest tour will begin on July 27 in Lubbock where the group will get an overview of High Plains cotton production from Plains Cotton Growers Executive Vice President Steve Verett, an update on managing High Plains weed resistance from Peter Dotray of the Texas Agri-Life Extension, and a tour of Bayer CropScience's research facility. Other activities that day include a visit to United Cotton Growers Gin in Levelland and tours of local cotton producers' operations as well as a visit to Sudan Coop Gin in Sudan and tours with cotton producers in that area.

On the 28th, the group will visit Smith Farms in Floydada and tour Hurst Farm Supply in Lorenzo. While in Lorenzo, the group will receive updates on Texas water rights and GPS and soil monitoring technology.

The next two days, the group will be in the state's Coastal Bend area. On July 29 in Corpus Christi, they will visit Stover Equipment Company, the Gulf Compress, the Port of Corpus Christi, Gatefront, LLC's fertilizer terminal and tour individual farms in the Odem area.

The tour concludes on July 30 with a tour of the King Ranch in Kingsville and a visit to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Fish Hatchery in Corpus Christi.

In this season's other P.I.E. tours, Southeast producers saw operations in California on July 13-16; Far West producers will visit Georgia on August 2-7; and Southwest producers will travel to Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi on August 16-21.