ALABAMA A&M and AUBURN UNIVERSITIES

COTTON TOUR BUILDS ON PAST SUCCESSES

AUBURN, AUG. 13---Twenty-one years ago, when Lee County Cooperative Extension Agent Jeff Clary organized the East Alabama Cotton Tour, he had no idea how big it would turn out to be.

What began as a modest tour focusing on only one aspect of cotton farming in Lee County, has turned out to be a mammoth undertaking. Sponsored by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and Auburn University’s College of Agriculture, the annual cotton trek is now a mainstay for growers in a six-county region in East and Central Alabama.

"We started out looking at insect problems in cotton, but it evolved into a tour focusing on all aspects of cotton production," Clary says. "After a while, we started looking at new varieties but, of course, they were nothing like we’re seeing today."

"Today’s cotton varieties have been genetically engineered to resist pests and herbicides – no one would have believed this was possible 21 years ago."

Then there was the issue of boll weevil eradication.

"Twenty years ago, growers were so preoccupied with holding the weevils at bay, they hardly could think of anything else," Clary says. "But thanks to the major strides made by boll weevil eradication, they’ve been able to concentrate on the even bigger challenge of acquiring new technology – technology they’re going to need to stay in business."

As a result, the annual event now amounts to a technology tour, affording many producers with the best opportunity they have during the year to get acquainted with professionals on the cutting edge of production technology. In fact, one of the biggest assets of the tour is it allows growers to "rub elbows" with Extension specialists as well as seed, chemical and equipment vendors.

"We county agents are only so good, and we depend on our subject-matter experts at Auburn University as well as industry professionals to maintain that cutting edge in production technology," he says.

Clary credits the annual tour with persuading growers to switch to new genetically engineered cotton varieties. In fact, every cotton grower in East Alabama has adopted genetically engineered technology to one degree or another and an increasing number are acquiring so-called "stacked gene" varieties that protect cotton plants against bollworms as well as limit applications of Round-up Ready herbicide.

This year’s event, held July 28, actually encompassed three tours. In the morning, producers from Lee, Chambers, Macon and Tallapoosa counties took part in the East Alabama tour, while growers in Elmore and Autauga counties participated in a tour of Central Alabama cotton fields. Later that day, a third tour, sponsored by the College of Agriculture and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station was conducted at the E.V. Smith Research Center’s Agronomy Farm by the facility’s director, Dr. Jim Bannon.

Despite all of the changes in cotton production, the basic structure of the annual tour hasn’t changed in more than 20 years. The tour typically begins at a local farm – in this year’s case, the Robert Miller Farm on Beehive Road near Auburn. After a few opening remarks and a brief farm tour, producers climb into their cars and pickup trucks and form a caravan that winds its way up a long stretch of rural road, stopping frequently at different farms where producers are on hand to discuss their crop situations.

This year, participants in the morning tours in East and Central Alabama eventually rendezvoused at the Milstead Farm Group Gin in Macon County, where they were treated to a steak dinner provided by the tours’ numerous sponsors before touring the E.V. Smith Center.

"These tours are one of the many ways the Extension System, Experiment Station and College of Agriculture work together to provide cutting-edge education to the state’s producers," Clary says.

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SOURCE: JIM LANGCUSTER, Extension communications specialist, Alabama Cooperative Extension System (334) 844-5686.