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NSP Chair talks sorghum, trade, becoming carbon neutral

Newly elected chairman, Kody Carson, reflects on 2020 and what's ahead for sorghum.

Shelley E. Huguley, Senior Editor

October 13, 2020

This month, the National Sorghum Producers Board of Directors announced the election of Kody Carson, Olton, Texas, as is its chairman. Farm Press caught up with Carson as he was custom-harvesting black-eyed peas on a farm near Cotton Center. 

Carson talked with Editor Shelley Huguley about restoring trade relationships, the use of U.S. and Texas sorghum in China and Vietnam, and sorghum's role in helping companies become 'carbon neutral.'

"Everyone is talking about going green and becoming carbon neutral, well, those companies can't hardly do that without the U.S. farmer. They need the carbon we put back into the soil through the root mass to accomplish that," Carson says. "Sorghum happens to be a crop that's incredibly efficient at putting carbon back into the soil.

"I think there may be a time in the future when our carbon credits have more value and will be a part of our budgeting when we're trying to figure crops and cash flow."

Watch to learn more!

See, NSP Board elects new leadership

Read more about:

Carbon Neutral

About the Author

Shelley E. Huguley

Senior 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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