By Dr. Jackie Smith
Is now the time to price your 2017 cotton crop? That question and many more will be addressed by experts during the cotton marketing workshop held in conjunction with the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association Annual Meeting and Trade Show in Lubbock.
The free Bayer-sponsored workshop will run from 1-4 p.m. in Room 107-108 of the Lubbock Civic Center April 5, which is the afternoon prior to the opening of the ginners’ trade show.
Dr. Jackie Smith, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist at Lubbock, said the primary topics to be discussed will be the cotton and grain market outlook and pricing strategies.
“We’ll also be looking at possible opportunities for producers found in the farm bill to improve their bottom line by planting program crops on cotton generic acres to qualify for program payments,” Smith said. “But the main item of workshop business will be helping producers through the dilemma surrounding current cotton prices, which are at a level now that have many trying to decide if they should forward price some or all of their expected production.”
Along with Smith, who has served Lubbock area farmers for over 30 years, speakers will include Dr. John Robinson and Dr. Mark Welch, AgriLife Extension cotton marketing specialist and economist, respectively, from College Station. Also scheduled to speak is Kelli Merritt, president of CropMark Select.
Smith maintains the profitability website http://southplainsprofit.tamu.edu/ where the budget spreadsheet to be discussed during the workshop can be found.
Robinson has been the state cotton marketing specialist for more than 12 years and his Cotton Market Outlook is available at http://cottonmarketing.tamu.edu/. He also provides daily crop market news on Twitter @aggie_prof.
Merritt, a licensed commodity broker and cotton grower in Dawson County who serves as a liaison between farmers and spinning mills, will speak on the various marketing tools that can be used to forward price cotton to take advantage of favorable prices, Smith said.
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