Ron Smith 1, Senior Content Director

April 1, 2016

14 Slides

Jeannie Hileman, Carnegie Cooperative Gin manager, Carnegie, Oklahoma, expects cotton acreage in her area to be up in 2016 as farmers take advantage of good soil moisture to plant dryland cotton.

The co-op is coming off a pretty good year. “We ginned 37,000 bales last year,” Hileman said at the recent Carnegie Cooperative annual cotton conference. “We were close to our record of 42,000, set in 2014.

“Dryland cotton looks like a good option with adequate moisture. I’m always reluctant to recommend planting dryland cotton during a drought, but conditions look good now.”

She says farmers with irrigation also might plant more cotton. “Cotton looks better under irrigation than most other crops,” she says.

The cooperative hosted a good number of farmers and industry stakeholders at the recent conference, which featured market updates as well as production tips for 2016.

 Here are a few images from the meeting.

About the Author(s)

Ron Smith 1

Senior Content Director, Farm Press/Farm Progress

Ron Smith has spent more than 40 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension editor at Clemson University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English in 1975. He served as associate editor for Southeast Farm Press from 1978 through 1989. In 1990, Smith helped launch Southern Turf Management Magazine and served as editor. He also helped launch two other regional Turf and Landscape publications and launched and edited Florida Grove and Vegetable Management for the Farm Press Group. Within two years of launch, the turf magazines were well-respected, award-winning publications. Ron has received numerous awards for writing and photography in both agriculture and landscape journalism. He is past president of The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association and was chosen as the first media representative to the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Advisory Board. He was named Communicator of the Year for the Metropolitan Atlanta Agricultural Communicators Association. More recently, he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Smith also worked in public relations, specializing in media relations for agricultural companies. Ron lives with his wife Pat in Johnson City, Tenn. They have two grown children, Stacey and Nick, and three grandsons, Aaron, Hunter and Walker.

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