Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is talking with a cotton grower from Altus, Austin Leverett, about his recent farm tour, Oklahoma’s cotton crop, and the benefits of the Climate Smart Cotton Program. Leverett has just returned from the Mid-South P.I.E. Tour.
The P.I.E. Tour was set up to help producers get to meet other producers from multiple states, Leverett said, and to travel around the country to see how producers grow their crops.
One of the main differences Leverett said he saw while on tour was production goals.
“I was fairly taken back that they don’t shoot for higher yields, but after sitting through the research center and talking to producers, a lot of their problem is too much water,” Leverett said. “Too much water at inopportune times and having to spray for plant bugs. They just have a lot worse cases of plant bugs.”
Where in Oklahoma, a producer might spray two or three times, Leverett said other states, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, are spraying seven to ten times.
“Some of the first guys we saw had gone to 60-inch-wide beds, so they could do cotton down the middle and come back with corn or beans on 30’s on either side of it,” Leverett said. “Just getting to see several of the guys that are trying things. A lot of times, you don’t know until you try it. I don’t think it would work around here, but it was interesting to see how these guys are trying to double crop in their areas.”
While Leverett said he learned a lot about different methods, most of it depends on location. Many places he visited on the tour have an abundance of water and topsoil, he said, which is very different from Oklahoma conditions.
Now that he has returned to Altus, Leverett said conditions are still hot and dry.
“Some of this cotton is still holding on quite a bit,” Leverett said. “We will see if it will go on ahead and fill the rest of these bolls and hold onto what it has got… if you don’t have water down here, it is looking pretty rough.”
Leverett also talked about the value of enrolling in the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocols Climate Smart Cotton Program.
The Trust Protocol announced the appointment of Averum to provide additional Third-Party verification support after seeing the highest number of grower enrolments to date. With a 120% increase in grower enrolment since its launch three years ago, the program now requires a significantly higher number of independent verifications.
This announcement is important as demand for sustainably grown, verified cotton continues to increase by global brands and retailers. Averum specializes in assisting agricultural companies to assess, manage, and communicate their environmental and social sustainability. Their auditors, located throughout the United States, have extensive experience in the food and agriculture industry.
“The people that buy our cotton are more and more looking to prove where that cotton came from, that it was grown sustainably,” Leverett said. “These people, when they buy a shirt, they want to know that this cotton was grown in America, that it was grown right, and it was grown trying to preserve as much water and nutrients and everything else.”
It is important for the marketability of U.S. cotton, Leverett said, that producers take the time to enroll in the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol.
To be eligible for the Climate Smart Cotton Program, growers must first complete enrolment and data entry in the Trust Protocol by the September 1, 2023 deadline and upload their 2023 bales by March 1, 2024. Applications will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis. Growers can also view this video for step-by-step instructions on how to apply and complete their enrolment at www.TrustUSCotton.org.
