Cotton yield and quality records are made to be broken, and that’s just what FiberMax cotton growers did in 2015 to qualify for the elite FiberMax One Ton Club.
During a celebration in Lubbock, TX, Bayer recently honored 127 members who qualified for the One Ton Club during the 2015 crop year. Those qualifiers included 40 new members and 87 returning qualifiers, making the total number of FiberMax One Ton Club members 848.
The highest yield for those who qualified for the FiberMax One Ton Club in 2015 – 3,717 pounds, or 7.7 bales, per acre – was recorded on 32 acres by Vance and Mandie Smith, of Big Spring, TX, who topped their previous record by 400 pounds per acre. For the Smiths, that’s more than six times the Texas average in 2015, which was 614 pounds per acre.
The highest acreage winners – Eric and Christy Seidenberger, of Garden City, TX – averaged 2,054 pounds per acre on 564 acres.
What makes the numbers posted by the 127 FiberMax One Ton Club members more remarkable is that 2015 was marked by rains that delayed or prevented cotton planting in some areas, notes Jeff Brehmer, U.S. product manager for FiberMax cotton. For many cotton growers across the nation, it was a tough year to make a crop. But for the 40 new members of the One Ton Club, 2015 marked a banner year for their efforts using FiberMax genetics and traits.
“The consistent yields of FiberMax are demonstrated with the growers who come back year after year,” Brehmer says. One FiberMax One Ton Club member qualified for his tenth year, and four growers have qualified every year since the club began.
“Over the course of the last 11 years, we’ve had growers who qualified for the FiberMax One Ton Club using 37 different varieties,” Brehmer says. “The most recent varieties we advanced – FM 1911GLT, FM 1900GLT, FM 2007GLT – have all been qualifiers for the FiberMax One Ton Club.”
Top of the One Ton Club Crop
Individual awards presented during the banquet included highest yield, highest loan value, highest gross loan value per acre, most acres and most varieties. The 2015 winners are:
- Highest Loan Rate. Mark Pratt of Visalia, CA, garnered $0.5799 for 55 of his qualifying cotton acres planted to FM 1830GLT. He qualified for the One Ton Club on 162 acres with an average yield of 2,335 pounds per acre. His average loan rate across all the acres was $0.5674.
- Highest Gross Loan Value and Highest Yield. Vance and Mandie Smith of Big Spring, TX, averaged 3,717 pounds per acre on a 32-acre field planted to FM 2484B2F. On their 128 qualifying acres, the Smiths averaged 2,726 pounds per acre.
- Most Acres. Eric and Christy Seidenberger of Garden City, TX, averaged 2,054 pounds per acre on 564 acres planted with FM 2007GLT and FM 2484B2F.
- Most Varieties Achieving One Ton Club Yields. Growers Mitchell Jansa and Joe D. Schwartz, of Apple Creek Farms, Garden City, TX, accepted the award for averaging more than a ton of lint cotton on 456 acres planted to five FiberMax varieties – FM 1830GLT, FM 1900GLT, FM 2334GLT, FM 1944GLB2 and FM 2484B2F.
Three Brothers Win One Ton Truck
All FiberMax One Ton Club members are entered into a drawing for a two-year lease on a Ford Super Duty F-350 King Ranch truck. This year’s winner is the Weinheimer family from Groom, TX.
The three brothers and their wives are four-year members of the FiberMax One Ton Club. Oldest brother Pat Weinheimer Jr. and his wife, Kim, took the lead on accepting the truck. Brothers Jarret and Paul share the award along with their wives, Samantha and Lizette, respectively.
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