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Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton Farmer Showcase discusses cover crops, improving soil moisture and increasing soil organic matter levels.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

February 5, 2021

2 Min Read
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Soil health in cotton production to top Feb. 9 seminar. Shelley E. Huguley

Soil health and cotton production in Texas will take center stage Feb. 9, 2021, during the virtual Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton Farmer Showcase.

The event, sponsored by the Soil Health Institute, will feature discussions between two Texas producers and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialists about the challenges and benefits of adopting practices to improve soil health.

Topics to be covered include managing cover crops to minimize water use; improving soil moisture levels; and increasing soil organic matter levels.

Featured growers are no-till farmer Jeremy Brown, who farms near Lamesa, Texas, and producer Barry Evans, who produces primarily dryland cotton near Kress.

 

Texas cotton producer Jeremy Brown. (Photo by Shelley E. Huguley)swfp-shelley-huguley-jeremy-brown.jpg

“The soil is the life to what we do as farmers. It is important that we steward it well now and into the future," Brown said. "This seminar is an opportunity for farmers to learn more about what they can do to help improve their soil.”

Extension specialists include:

  • Paul DeLaune, professor environmental soil science

  • Jami Foster, professor Forages

  • Katie Lewis, Associate professor soil fertility and chemistry

  • High Plains region

    • Murilo Maeda, professor and cotton specialist

    • Jourdan Bell, Associate professor and Extension specialist

  • Rolling Plains region

    • Emi Kimura, agronomist and Extension State peanut specialist

  • South Texas region

    • Josh McGinty, professor and Extension specialist

Upcoming events are as follows:

  • February 16, 2021- Arkansas- Soil Health in Arkansas: Is it Profitable?

  • February 23, 2021- California- Improving Soil Health in a Dry Climate

  • March 2, 2021- Georgia- Soil Health in a Cotton and Peanut Rotation

  • March 9, 2021- North Carolina and Virginia- Soil Health: View from the Cotton Gin 

  • March 16, 2021- The Carolinas- Lessons from 8 Years of Regenerative Agriculture

  • March 23, 2021 - Why Soil Health is Important to the Future of U.S. Cotton

The final event in the series, Why Soil Health is Important to the Future of U.S. Cotton, will address why companies are increasingly becoming more interested in soil health as well as address the following questions:

  • Do data support the idea that consumers are demanding regenerative practices? Are they willing to pay more for them?

  • Will soil health and regenerative agriculture practices be mandatory in the future?

  • Will growers see any financial reimbursement or incentives?

The Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton Farmer Showcase is part of the Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton project, which provides farmer-focused education and training events delivered by Soil Health Institute scientists, partnering with local soil health technical specialists and farmer mentors who have implemented successful soil health management systems. The project aims to increase the adoption of soil health management systems among cotton producers while documenting environmental and economic benefits.

To register and learn more about the virtual Farmer Showcase events, visit http://bit.ly/2Mz74Ge.

About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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