The National Cotton Council has scheduled dates and locations for the 2009 Producer Information Exchange (P.I.E.) program.

Sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation, the program is now in its 21st year of helping its U.S. cotton producer participants improve yields and fiber quality.

This season, producers from the Southwest will see operations in Louisiana and Mississippi on July 12-17; Mid-South producers will visit Texas on July 26-31; Southeastern producers will travel to California on Aug. 2-7; and Far Western producers will tour Georgia, Alabama and Florida on Aug. 16-21.

Cotton Foundation President Mark Nichols, an Altus, Okla., cotton producer, said the P.I.E. program enables cotton producers to improve yields and fiber quality along with boosting their overall operation’s efficiency by: (1) gaining new perspectives in such fundamental practices as land preparation, planting, fertilization, pest control, irrigation and harvesting and (2) observing firsthand the unique ways in which their innovative peers are using new and existing technology.

Upon completion of this year’s four tours, the P.I.E. program will have exposed more than 800 U.S. cotton producers to innovative production practices in regions different than their own.