Many changes are happening in agriculture today. HIgher prices for grains, due to speculation on biofuel production and yield-limiting drought, for example, have farmers' attention today. But production costs, fertilizer, pesticides, seed, equipmemt, you name it, have shot up as well.

What can a farmer to do to keep farming and stay alive?

Steven Clay and his father, John, farm corn, peanuts and cotton in rotation near Carnegie, Ok., in Caddo County. Usually they will plant their center pivot irrigated land to a traditional one third cotton, one third corn and one third peanuts. This year, riding with the current tide of change, Steven says they will plant more corn and peanuts and less cotton.

Steven Clay, a cotton farmer in Carnegie, Oklahoma, prepares for the spring season. Steven farms with his father, John. photo by NTOKCotton

"Plan your work; work your plan" is a familiar saying the Clays follow though. "We won't change a great deal how we fertilize or apply herbicides," he says. "We will topdress before planting and then apply fertilizer as a foliar spray with the pivot irrigation systems."

As most farmers using pivot irrigation do, they prepare their ground with strip tillage.

Steven, who is the treasurer of the Okilahoma Cotton Council, is happy with the current moisture supply they have. "We have had plenty of rain," he said. "There should be more than enough soil moisture for planting in a few weeks."

So far as their cotton production is concerned, the Clays, like most cotton producers in the area, had good yields in 2007. One cotton variety, FiberMax 1740, gave them good yields and Steven intends to use it again this year.

Agriculture economists are predicting cotton could sell for .85 cents per pound this year and over a dollar a pound in 2009. If these predictions prove true, Steven and John Clay are preparing to take advantage of them.

TALKIN' COTTON is produced by NTOK Cotton, a cotton industry partnership which supports and encourages cotton production in North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. For more information on the cotton scene, see www.okiecotton.org and www.ntokcotton.org. For questions and comments on Talkin' Cotton, contact eventerprise1@hughes.net.