Western Cotton Farmers Tour Georgia Agriculture

Cotton producers from California and Arizona took a statewide tour of Georgia agriculture Aug. 2-7 as part of the National Cotton Council's (NCC) Producer Information Exchange (PIE) program.

Now in its 27th year, the PIE program is sponsored by Bayer CropScience through a grant to The Cotton Foundation. The program is designed to give cotton farmers from across the Cotton Belt firsthand experience of how their peers from different cotton-producing regions are adapting to challenges and using current technologies. Participants learn about unique farming practices and agricultural industries in different regions of the Cotton Belt.

Program participants saw a wide range of agricultural activities ranging from a cotton spinning mill to an agricultural aircraft manufacturer. The first stop on the participants' tour through Georgia was at 1888 Mills, LLC, a textile manufacturer in Griffin. Though there are not as many textile mills in the Southeast as there were 20 years ago, the participants learned of the still vibrant, albeit smaller, textile industry in Georgia. From there, the group traveled south to learn about the famous Georgia peach industry at Lane Southern Orchards in Fort Valley. The day concluded with a tour of a cotton gin at Coley Gin and Fertilizer in Vienna.

The next day, participants toured the Tifton area. During stops at Kelly Manufacturing Company (KMC) and Tifton Quality Peanut, the program participants got to learn about the peanut industry, which does not exist in the participants' home states of California and Arizona. The participants spent the remainder of the day at Lewis Taylor Farms learning about vegetable production from Bill Brim and at Davis Farms with Bart Davis learning about cotton, peanut and cattle production.

The following day, the group toured the Albany area. There the group toured Miller Brewing Company to learn about automated machinery for product handling and Thrush Aircraft, a manufacturer of agricultural aircraft. The group saw firsthand how Thrush makes complete aircraft from start to finish at its Albany facility. The latter part of the day was spent touring Bayer CropSciences' cotton test plots and visiting RCL Farms in Bronwood, a family farm operated by Ronnie Lee and his three sons - Neil, Ron, and Chandler. The Lees also own and operate McCleskey Cotton, a cotton gin and warehouse company in Bronwood. Ronnie explained how his gin operation works while Neil showed the group fields of cotton and peanuts. The California and Arizona growers were surprised to see a field of Pima cotton growing at RCL Farms since Texas is the furthest east Pima is typically grown. Neil explained to them that this is just a small field that they are trying this year.