Georgia hosts cotton farmers from California and Arizona

Aug 18, 2015

Statewide tour took place August 2nd – 7th, 2015

As part of the National Cotton Council’s Producer Information Exchange Program, cotton producers from California and Arizona made their way to Georgia for a five-day tour of the Peach State’s agriculture.

Cotton

The Bayer CropScience-sponsored program, now in its 27^th year is aimed to give farmers across the Cotton Belt (North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma) a better understanding of how their colleagues are adapting to different challenges and using the latest technologies to increase the chances of a better crop.

“We have more in common than we do differences across U.S. agriculture; this is a great opportunity and privilege to learn and interact with growers,” said Lee Hall, Industry Relations Lead with Bayer CropScience.

Along with the cotton and other similar industries between the states, the tour also learned about the peanut industry – an industry that isn’t prevalent in California and Arizona.

“I enjoyed the trip very much and saw lots of different types of crops in both dryland and irrigated fields,” said Bob Bertao, a cotton, alfalfa, cantaloupe and wheat farmer from Dos Palas, California. “It was near to learn about the different cultural practices.”

The 10 states that produce the most cotton are:

Texas
California
Mississippi
Georgia
Arkansas
North Carolina
Tennessee
Missouri
Louisiana
Arizona

Join the conversation and tell us the challenges you’ve had to face with your cotton yields. What measures have you taken to ensure the best results for your field?

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.