Friday, February 14, 1997

Rolling Plains Cotton Growers draw big crowd at farm show

By J.T. SMITH

Farm Editor

A little snow on the roof and nip in the air didn't stifle the annual meeting of the Rolling Plains Cotton Growers Thursday in conjunction with the final day of the 5th Big Country Farm and Ranch Show.

A capacity crowd filled the Round Building at the Expo Center as the 30-county RPCG organization came to Abilene.

The cold and snow didn't hurt the entire farm show's two-day attendance, either.

"Last year we had a two-day record attendance of 18,165," said Marshall Brown of Champion Farm Shows, Burnsville, Minn. "We're well over 18,000 this year."

Brown gave credit to the Expo Center staff, the many exhibitors, and especially to Lindy Patton, RPCG executive vice president from Stamford and Taylor County Extension Agent Gary Bomar for their roles in the dramatic growth in the annual farm show.

Bomar spent months organizing the educational seminars, while Patton did the same to bring the RPCG meeting together.

The white fiber RPCG members produce has far brighter days ahead.

"Cotton Incorporated has worked to take the shrink, the fade, and ... the <I>wrinkle<I> out of cotton," said Wayne Cleveland, Cotton Board representative who has his headquarters in Lubbock.

Textile mills don't use cotton because they love to work with it as a raw material, Cleveland said. They would just as readily use polyester fiber.

"But they use cotton because consumers demand it," Cleveland noted.

Beyond apparel, CI is working on the nonwoven market for items such as sanitary products, Cleveland reported.

The huge carpet market also is being targeted by CI research and promotion efforts.

Cleveland noted that widely viewed CI commercials on the Today Show are only possible on network television because of the nation cotton growers' funding of their own promotion work in a unified effort.

Looking at cotton in year 2000

Dr. James Supak told the RPCG gathering that exciting developments are on the horizon for cotton as the industry approaches year 2000.

The Texas A&M professor and associate department head of Soil and Crop Sciences said boll weevil eradication and advancements in biotechnology will be two enormous achievements for cotton.

Transgenic cottons will enable a gene from a bacteria to be transferred into a cotton plant to protect it against certain insects such as worms, Supak said.

Right now, the licensing fee for <I>Bacillus thuringensis<I> or so-called "Bt" cottons amounts to an expensive $32 per acre. But Suapak expects the technology to be much cheaper in a few years.

Herbicide resistance may also be genetically engineered into cotton plants so a variety of weeds can be controlled, Supak said.

Other genetic work is aimed at making cotton plants more tolerant to cold early in the growing season, or targeted at controlling crop diseases.

Such work is being done by national and international companies, USDA, universities, institutes and various foundations.

The TxCot program recently received $1 million from the Texas Legislature to help fund current biotechnology projects that involve both Texas A&M as well as Texas Tech universities and other cooperators. Although a million dollars doesn't go far in such high-tech work, it is a positive step for the state's cotton industry, he noted.

Funding for agriculture is a tough road nowadays, noted Mark Lundgren, outgoing RPCG president, Stamford.

"The fat of farm policy has been cut - there is no fat left," Lundgren noted. "Any further (ag) cuts come from the bone."

Lundgren was presented a plaque of appreciation for 15 years of service to RPCG.

Elected 1997-98 RPCG officers were: Roger Blackwelder of Rotan, president; Steve Moore, vice president, Roscoe; and Ronnie Riddle, secretary-treasurer, Abilene.

Patton recognized Woody Anderson, chairman of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, Colorado City, for his travel and time on behalf of the Boll Weevil Eradication Program.