This week in Southeast agriculture we found out southeast cotton acreage might drop more. Cottonseed debate hit a stalemate. Tobacco gets started. Florida farm moved away from devastated citrus to olives. The genomic quest for perfect peanut continues. Field data is tough to handle and use, but vital. And, by the way, is your land lease unfair?

Is your land lease truly fair?

Have you recently made a land lease agreement? Was it fair? Is it time to renegotiate? Situations change and can change quickly in farming. What seemed fair a few years ago might not be today. There is more than one way to come to a land lease agreement, and it depends on how the risk is shared.

Less cotton in Southeast but more total US acres in 2016, survey says

U.S. cotton farmers will increase their acres in 2016 despite the less-than-rosy forecast for cotton future prices, according to the National Cotton Council’s Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey. The survey says producers intend to plant 9.1 million acres of cotton, up 6.2 percent from 2015’s 8.58 million acres. The latter were the lowest plantings since 1983.

Largest farm show in Virginia-Carolinas draws 30,000 to Raleigh

This year's Southern Farm Show drew 30,000 people to the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh Feb. 3-5. Once again, the show presented a great opportunity for farmers from throughout the Carolinas and Virginia to see the newest in farm equipment, network with peers and gain valuable information that they can take back to their farms.

Conaway: Farm bill gives Vilsack OK for cottonseed designation

House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway says Congress gave the secretary of agriculture specific authority to designate any oilseed – including cottonseed – as “an other oilseed” for farm program purposes.

The complicated perfect peanut. Good luck, peanut genome

The peanut genome is sequenced, which is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean the industry is looking to develop a GMO peanut. Not that there’s anything wrong with GMO crops. It’s just that the peanut is not moving in that direction.

South Carolina tobacco farmers floating seed

It’s the first week of February, so tobacco growers in the Pee Dee of South Carolina have been working on filling and seeding their float trays.

Field data: It’s tough to handle and use, but now often vital

Steve Valencsin acknowledges that managing all the data on the farm and  using that data to improve the bottom line is a daunting task, but he emphasizes that the job  is all the more important in difficult years like 2016.

Florida farm tries olives after catastrophic citrus greening losses

Richard Williams unfurls his long, sturdy frame from a tractor and begins a stroll through 20 acres of olive groves at his farm in Volusia County, Florida. His in-laws, the Ford/Veech family, have spent six generations farming in Florida and have a more than 50-year-old citrus grove.

Brake herbicide gets registration for use on cotton

EPA has granted a Section 3 registration for the application of Brake herbicide pre-emergence in cotton, providing growers with a different mode of action to use in their ongoing struggle with herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth.