Farm/Ranch
Talkin' cotton....
By NTOK Cotton
Jan 18, 2009
Roby, Texas farmer Jeff Posey, like a lot of other farmers, wears more than one hat, so to speak.
The majority of the time he farms cotton in the Texas Rolling Plains. But he also serves as president of the Rolling Plans Cotton Growers Assn., a farmer cooperative headquartered at Stamford, Tx.
Posey, a fourth-generaion farmer, produces cotton, wheat and grain sorghum in rotation at his farm. Farming 780 acres of dryland cotton and 550 acres of irrigated cotton in 2008, Posey utilized strip tillage and drip irrigation to grow the cotton better, he said.
"Our 2008 dryland cotton averaged 440 pounds of lint per acre," he said. "The irrigated acreage averaged 1,360 pounds of lint per acre. The irrigated yields ranged from 875 pounds to 1,475 pounds."
Like other progressive cotton farmers, Posey takes adavantage of the features of Roundup Ready Flex and Bolgard variieties. He realizes the advantages of better protection against weeds and soil diseases affecting cotton.
Working with Karin Kuykendall, executive vice presdent of the Rolling Plains cooperative, Posey recently attended the Cotton Belt meetings at San Antonio.
"We came away from the meeting realizing there are at least two important subject we must deal with in the future," he said. "In Texas, demands made on water and how it should be used are becoming greater all the time. Water is life to farmers, both irrigated and dryland. We are working to make sure farmers are well-represented in any future decisions made about water availability."
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| Jeff Posey and Karin Kuykendall serve the Rolling Plains Cotton Growers Assn., a cotton farming cooperative headquartered in Stamford, Tx. It covers 31 counties in north and northwest Texas bordering southwestern Oklahoma and ranging down to the Abilene, Tx., area. Posey, a Roby, Tx., cotton farmer, is the current president of the cooperative. Kuykendall serves as the association executive vice president. (NTOK Cotton photo) |
Nationally, Posey believes there are many aspects of the new US Farm Law that have not been fully explained by either Congress or the USDA. "What the new farm law will do and how it will be implemented are subjects we are discussing daily with our Congressional representatives," he said.
Posey has been farming for 26 years. Growing up, Posey's father worked as a high school coach and farmed, too. Now, his father is still active in the family farming enterprise.
Two sons, both enrolled in Lubbock, Tx., universities, are majoring in agricultural education and agricultural business, Posey said. The sons work together farming 500 acres. "This helps them pay for their college tuition," Posey said.
Family values and land stewardship are very important to Posey, he said.
"It is a good feeling to be farming with the entire family involved," he said.
2008-2009 COTTON PRODUCTION estmates have been lowered, according the USDA January report.
USDA now projects a crop of 13.04 million bales, down 570,000 bales from the December, 2008, report.
US mill use dropped 100,000 bales to 4.2 million bales while exports fell to 12 million bales from 12.25 million. This generates 2008-09 offtake of 16.2 million bales. Ending stocks for 2008-09 are seen at 6.9 million bales for a stocks-to-use ratio of 42.6 percent.
USDA's January report lowers 2008-09 world production estimates 1.72 million bales from December's report to 109.8 million bales.
TALKIN' COTTON is produced by NTOK Cotton, a cotton industry partnership which supports and encourages increased cotton production in the Rolling Plains of North Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. For more information on the cotton scene, see okiecotton.org and ntokcotton.org. For questions or comments on Talkin' Cotton, contact eventerprise1@hughes.net.