Auburn, Aug. 24---What a difference 20 years can make.

In 1978, when a young county Extension agent organized the first Lee County Cotton Tour, he had no idea how big it eventually would become or how much it would reflect the changes that have occurred within cotton farming within the last couple of decades.

Sponsored by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and the Auburn University College of Agriculture, the Lee County Cotton Tour quickly evolved into the East Alabama Cotton Tour, an annual event that became a mainstay for producers throughout the region.

This year’s tour is destined to be even bigger now that it has been merged with a similar tour held annually in central Alabama.

The combined tour is scheduled for Thursday, September 6, at Prattville Experiment Field on County Road 4 East, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

"It’s one of the most cost-effective ways I’ve seen to reach producers, all of whom enjoy getting out and visiting other producers and discussing this year’s crop," says Dr. Ron Smith, an Extension cotton-insect specialist and Auburn University entomology professor who has participated in the tour since 1978.

Much of the success associated with the annual tour belongs to Dr. Jeff Clary, the Lee County agent who organized the first cotton trek more than 20 years ago.

Twenty years ago, Clary says, the tour focused almost entirely on insect damage on cotton – a sign of just how much the cotton landscape has changed within the last few decades.

"Twenty years ago, growers were so preoccupied with holding boll weevils and other cotton predators at bay, they could hardly think of anything else," he says.

Now with the effective elimination of boll weevils and the widespread adoption of insect-resistant cotton varieties, growers are now free to concentrate on acquiring new technology to enhance yields and reduce operating costs. Gaining an understanding of these new technologies will be essential, Clary says, for producers to increase yields, reduce operating costs and stay in business in a highly competitive global market.

The agenda for this year’s tour reflects the growing preoccupation with cotton production technology.

While insect control will remain a major topic, this year’s tour will also cover a host of other topics, including the release of two new weed-control systems, research on new plant defoliants and growth regulators, results of long-term soil fertility studies, and the potential benefits of herbicide-resistant cotton varieties. Cotton-seedling disease and reniform nematode control also will be discussed. An Extension agricultural economist also will discuss changes in the new farm bill.

One of the tour’s biggest assets, Clary says, is allowing growers a chance to "rub elbows with Cooperative Extension specialists, Experiment Station researchers – not to mention, seed, chemical and equipment vendors."

"We county agents are only so good, and we depend on our Extension specialists, Experiment Station researchers and industry professionals to keep us apprized of the latest trends in production technology."

Clary credits past tours with playing a crucial role in helping growers switch to transgenically engineered cotton varieties that have enabled them to make major strides in controlling insects. In fact, virtually all producers throughout east and central Alabama have adopted genetically engineered cotton varieties to one degree or another in order to control insects and weeds.

This year’s tour is expected to attract more than 150 cotton producers throughout central Alabama.

For more information, contact Don Moore, Prattville Experiment Field superintendent, at (334) 365-7169; Dr. Jeff Clary, Lee County Extension coordinator, at (334) 749-3353; or Leonard Kuykendall, Autauga County Extension agent, at (334) 361-7273.