Field to fabric: How UGA's Cotton Team supports Georgia's growers

welcome to cultivating curiosity where we get down and dirty with the experts on all the ways science and agriculture touch our lives from what we eat to how we live I'm Jordan Powers and I'm Emily Cabrera we are from the University of Georgia's College of agricultural and environmental Sciences so M and I made the uh Trek today down to tiffon one of our favorite spots to come and visit and we are here with Camp hand assistant professor in the cas Department of crop and soil sciences and member of the ug cotton team Camp thank you so much for hosting us down in Tiff and oh yeah glad y'all came down everybody in Athens welcome to come to tiffon Anytime and he means it too every time we come down here it is the best walko and we're actually here in the studio right now of talking cotton your podcast which we'll get into in a little bit but before we dive into some of that content let's start from the top you're a key member of the ug cotton team it's a highly collaborative ug Cooperative Extension program that works directly with Growers County agents and Industry partners how is this team uniquely positioned to bridge these spheres in supporting Georgia's number one agronomic crop I think it is so cool that we have so many people covering so many aspects of production the fun part is that we all work together me and Philip Roberts and John Snyder those are my closest collaborators you know and so we do a lot of work together but it is a highly collaborative team of folks and so even talking about some of the stuff we've seen this year with cotton Leaf roll your virus right you rope in Dr Sadi bag our virologist Dr ping Chi our cotton breeder Dr kimid our plant pathologist Dr Roberts our enologist Dr Snider our physiologist and me so I mean like we all talk on a pretty regular basis about some of that stuff it really just creates an open line of communication we get together every other month and cook lunch at the Gin you know and hang out and cut up and all this stuff but then we talk about the crop and it's like what are y'all saying what's out there you know stuff like that it is a highly coll aborative team that really cares about cotton production in this state it makes it a lot of fun to have that and that's something that's very unique here when Camp talks about getting together at the J he's referring to the cotton microen on the ug tiffon campus despite the name the microen is anything but small this facility houses several pieces of large Machinery that work together to remove seeds and other plant debris from cotton researchers from ug regularly send cotton samples to the microen where the staff evaluates the quality and quantity of the cotton and shares that data with researchers the microen is crucial to the cotton teams mission to improve cotton production in Georgia we'll link to a video highlighting the ug cotton teams microen in the show notes I interviewed for jobs whenever I was coming out of graduate school or talk to people at other institutions and they don't work that way that's what makes us so unique as you talk to Folks at other institutions and they're like cotton team what's that it's kind of hard to explain but it makes us very unique it's just incredible to hear the brilliant research Minds coming together but then also like having lunch at the Gin like it's it's just from the outside at least seems like this perfect balance of brilliant research and pushing the industry forward but then also the collaboration that you can have a lot of brilliant people but if they're not getting together and not communicating then everybody's just doing their own thing exactly that's fascinating next time y'all come we'll try to work it out to where we cook lunch at the G I was going to say wait a second we missed an opportunity here her timing was aome we know that you are a cotton agronomist there's a lot to break down with that before we dive into what your day-to-day looks like what is cotton Agronomy and why is it an important role for the cotton industry cotton Agronomy I feel like is kind of a pretty holistic type role what I work on is everything from planting up to harvest we look at seed quality we look at seeding rates we look at plant growth regulators defoliation and termination of that cotton crop even to a certain extent you kind of trace it through the Gen process and start looking at fiber quality as it relates to different management practices and varieties and things like that I need to know a little bit of everything there is to know from planting to harvesting the crop and help Growers out the best I can and I guess to piggyback on that why cotton we have all these other Commodities what was it about cotton that Drew you I grew up around the industry my dad works for an ad Chemical Company and so I grew up riding with my Dad we would go and check fields and stuff like that and cotton is just something that if you got it you got it you know kind of thing and it's like most of the people that are in the cotton business now it's like in your blood almost and that's the way it was for me my family lives in a little town in Mississippi called Bolton and that's where I was born and lived for my first 5 years but that town ran on Cotton I mean they have a gin some of the biggest growers in the state of Mississippi or right there in that little town if it wasn't for cotton I mean a lot of smaller towns in the southern part of the United States wouldn't exist that's really kind of where I found myself was in a few of these smaller towns and so whenever I decided to go to college I I really enjoyed working in the garden with my granddad and so that was something that we always had fun with every summer and so I originally was doing fruit and vegetable production in horiculture so my first two degrees are in horiculture but then I also had a part-time job with the soybean specialist at Auburn his name is Dr Dennis Delaney and we actually got to do one of the cooler things I think that anybody can do is work on the old rotation at Auburn and that's the oldest continuous cotton study in the world so yeah it's pretty cool it was started in like 1896 it was my last summer with him with Dr Delaney before I started my Master's Degree he let me fertilize it by myself like he trusted me to do it alone and I was like man that is so cool you know I was fertilizing something that was 120 years you know worth of worth of work and so that you know seeing the old rotation really to me was one of the coolest things that I had ever done and I was in fruit and vegetable and the reason that I came to the University of Georgia I got my PhD here in tiffon so shout out to the tiffon campus right but I came and worked for Dr Stanley Co pepper and the reason that I came to work for him was on the vegetable side but he also covers cotton so I got back in the cotton business I guess your roots that's right and so this job came open right as I was coming out of school and I applied and it all worked out and all fell into place here we are now you're sitting here talking us that's right that's right well we're grateful for it what does a typical day look like for you I guess it depends on the time of year you know it's kind of interesting to see how it EVs and flows between January 10th and March 10th I'm going to be on the road in the counties across Georgia with our County agents doing production meetings so we're going to be informing Growers on the research that we've done in the last year the things that we think are going to help them improve their operations a little bit things they need to be looking at and new technologies and stuff like that so we do 47 of those meetings from January 10th to about March 10th and so we spend a lot of time on the road then I mean I don't want to say it like this but there's a law from March 10th until about the middle of April that's kind of when I get to catch up on office work and uh start to get ready for plot work and stuff like that on the station then about April 15th we start planing and we plant from April 15th until about June 10th we do about 100 acres worth of plot work here on the tiffon campus and then we've also got some stuff on some of our satellite stations like Midville and PLS and attapulgus and places like that and so we plant from April 15th to June 10th and then it's off to the races in terms of collecting data doing graduate student projects stuff like that and so it kind of picks up in June and July with pgr applications start to get a lot of phone calls from Agents during that time and then in August it picks up on field days and so we're back on the road in August and going to the different stations across the state doing field days and then I start doing some defoliation meetings I go do probably 10 of those a year talking about best management practices for defoliating this crop what we need to be looking at the impact that the year has had on the crop and so on the road pretty well through September and then we start picking so depending on the time of year A A Day in the Life looks very different that's what makes it interesting is it's always something different it's always something new and fun and exciting it definitely keeps life interesting never a boring day no no you made reference to stations yeah can you talk a little bit about the importance of stations and what those research yeah the experiment stations are vital to what we do we couldn't do our jobs without the experiment stations you know I do a lot of my stuff in Midville and it's on the southern end of Burke County the southeast research and education center and I would consider Anthony black who's the manager at dear friend of mine and he's taught me a lot over the last three or four years about cotton and if I want to call somebody and know what's going on I call Anthony him and the whole crew they're they're great folks and they run a great operation we couldn't operate in extension without the Rex we have got to have good reliable research and education centers to be able to do the work that we're talking about in the winter time it is absolutely vital to what we do and the and the land grant Mission and I'll say there's something impressive about coming to those research stations and looking out and seeing the diversity of PLS it's a giant farm it's a research and experimentation farm and to see the diversity of projects going on and know that there are a team of people looking at various aspects of agronomy oh yeah well and even the planning aspect like it's so interesting to talk to Anthony about how he plans how he rotates things it takes a lot of planning and a lot of forward thought on their part to get the kind of diversity you're talking about so it's a really really neat operation in my mind it's a big fascinating puzzle yes it is it really is and we'll include a link in the show notes to the Rex for listeners who might want to learn more about the work that they're doing over there what excites you most about your work oh man I love how it can be different all the time you know and each year brings a new challenge and so it's not like I do the same study two years in a row and get the same exact thing two years in a row it's always something different and so last year you know we had some really unique insect pressure that we don't normally get in the state of Georgia and that has long lasting impacts is something that I hope we don't ever deal with again but that has long lasting impacts on the crop and so I've got to start thinking like okay well we had this what are we going to be doing in September so the same thing this year the heat in the month of June has long lasting impacts on us and even delayed planting because it rained so much in May you know so we start doing that and then we got all this heat in June and it starts impacting things that we're thinking about right now as we approach the finish line but even unique issues to the state of Georgia and even the southeast I mean that that's what kind of gets me excited is helping our guys out you know find solutions to their problems one thing that kind of cropped up last year has been a problem for a long time but these white tailed deer are just wearing cotton out and so we've started doing a lot of work on that and getting a lot of support from the Georgia cotton commission cotton Incorporated Georgia Farm Bureau to try to get some data to help our guys out it's just always something different and that's what's so exciting about it I guess is what I'm trying to say yeah the diversity of what you're dealing with and how you can pull together and that's what's always fascinating to me is just learning about the breath of expertise through C and extension and that you have entomology and Plant Pathology and Agronomy and all of these things that come together to make the crop and at the end of the day for a lot of us the only thing we're thinking about is the blue jeans or the T-shirt or the thing that we're buying but there's so much work and research and expertise being poured into it and it's just and that's I'm geeking out that's the cool thing is that we've got faculty in the college that cover multiple crops and like yeah that's exciting right it is literally something different within a day right with what I do it's the same crop but it's still so different it just makes it a lot of fun and I know you just mentioned the end product the thing that that drives cotton production is the end user y sustainability has become a buzzword lately but behind the buzz is a very real concern and consumers are becoming increasingly interested in knowing how their clothing is being produced how are Georgia's cotton Growers implementing sustainable practices in production and maybe that even goes back to the research that's done on those stations yeah there has been a big push in the entire cotton industry to verify that the crop is sustainably produced some people think there's a negative connotation with it but I mean really cotton has such a neat Story to Tell in terms of sustainability even from bow weval eradication right before bow Weevil eradication cotton Growers were spraying insecticides 17 or 18 times a year wow right to even think about getting a crop now with bow W eradication and BT cotton we're at two insec side applications a year the B Weevil is a species of beetle that feeds on Cotton Buds and Flowers in the early 1900s this pest swept through the US and devastated cotton production throughout the South where the majority of cotton is grown the success of the southeast bull weevil eradication program has played a major role in the Revival of Georgia's cotton industry we've included a link to the ug Cooperative Extension publication that provides an in-depth overview of cotton production and the bull weevil in Georgia and so that's a success story you know talking about hey we're getting creative we're finding sustainable ways to manage these pests right and we're potentially reducing pests side inputs but also making money cuz the sustainability thing is a two-part thing right well three parts I guess it's got to be good for the environment and then Growers have got to make money and then there's the social aspect which is what you're talking about with the enduser they want that sustainable product they want it to be verified and that's something the national cotton Council has been really pushing with the US cotton trust protocol and so that is that verification tool for these Growers you know that's the kind of stuff that they want to know about I would say that cotton is extremely sustainable you know in terms of being environment conscious but also we're trying to make the decisions to help keep our folks in business too there has to be an RO the end of food put on the table absolutely so in our episode with Anna shet she referenced you as a champion in the effort to address Rural and farm stress it's a very important topic really across the world but something that we're really focusing on here in your role with ug extension you work directly with Farmers as we just talked about and have built relationships based on trust why is it important to support farmers in this specific Way Beyond kind of the hard science of growing one of Georgia's top Commodities Yeah Anna best she's wonderful she's awesome and I mean that relationship is so cool because I met Jennifer dun at some of our production meetings she would she would come and she would talk and I remember I pulled Jennifer to the side one day and I was like hey this is so cool what y'all do and I was like don't get bogged down that like nobody's stopping and talking to you right now or whatever cuz I was like this is important and she was like oh thanks like why do you think that and I was like cuz I've been there I mean I would say that there's more people that have been there than we know about cuz a lot of people aren't willing to talk about it you know and so that's kind of one thing that I really relate to Jennifer and Anna about is that hey we just got to talk about this Jennifer Dunn is a former rural Health agent for ug Cooperative Extension Don now serves as the deputy assistant commissioner for field operations South with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and developmental disabilities Anna shyat is a former dean of the ug School of Social Work and professor in the cas Department Of Agricultural leadership education and communication we'll link to our episode with Anna and the rural Georgia growing stronger website in the show notes and that relationship has led to me and Anna working on stuff together like a lot of this deer stuff it takes a toll on these guys and so I told Anna I was like hey there's something here on the deer thing these guys are staying up all night a lot of times they're alone and you can't farm all day and stay up all night and do what you need to do on the deer and so I told her I was like hey this is a big deal and so she and I kind of developed a survey that we've started Distributing to Growers to try to get more information on how this is impacting their well-being it's really cool to me that that relationship has evolved into something like that she and I have worked on other stuff too like shooting videos and and I've done a webinar that's because of my relationship with Anna and been on the blog and stuff like that but it's led to like stuff that's going to help our Growers out and help find some solutions for them too and express that hey it's not just they're losing money it's affecting them mentally too and affecting their home life that's something that is so cool to me but talking about the relationships with Growers I mean whenever I was in college we were very heavily involved in a group called young life I don't know if y'all know what that is but is yeah so we LED as volunteers with young life at high schools and middle schools in Auburn and even here in tiffon whenever I was in graduate school but one thing they always talked about in young life was that you got to earn the right to be heard that's something that even is reflected in what I do today is like for these guys to know that I'm here to help them or trying to they got to know that I'll drop anything I mean my first couple years was spent on the road like getting to know these guys and so you've got to have those relationships so that they know like you're doing everything you can for them and so that that way whenever you tell them something they trust that it's real you know it's like hey if I tell you these are the varieties I would plant it's like hey I'm out there busting it trying to find the best one for you and like based on my experience these are the three I would look at you know on your place or whatever it is and you've got to have those type relationships cuz if you don't then they're like oh this guy like who yeah who cares you know he's in and out of here and we don't ever hear from him or see him or nothing so you got to show hey I'm willing to get on the ground and get dirty with you and like we're going to figure this out you know we're going to solve this issue that you have on your place it's not all on their shoulders that's right and we're going to make sure that from here on you've got a plan on what exactly we're going to do to make sure that we don't have this problem again that's got to bring such a sense of comfort and relief to know that there's someone who cares yeah and cares about all of it well that's the other thing about the cotton team right is we like get together and it's like you know you can tell that everybody cares everybody wants these guys to be successful I mean talk about rural stress and mental health and stuff like that cotton ain't selling but for like 68 cents a pound right now and that is way below the cost of production and so we want for these guys to stay in business and we're doing everything we can I feel like to try to put them in that position to be successful you know but it's sometimes the World Market just throws a wrench in the whole thing exactly and I know you guys are gearing up for Harvest in the next month or so so what does this year's crop look like of course you've got extremes you've got stuff that looks really good and you've got stuff that's not so hot that's part of my job that is so difficult called is cuz I get these kind of questions and I only get called out to the bad stuff you know I don't ever get called from Agents or Growers of like man I got to show you this C and it's incredible you know now the crop the crop looks good the crop looks really good right now we did just have tropical storm Debbie come through fortunately in most parts of the state it seemed like that was not quite as bad as most people thought it was going to be uh we did get some spots in East Georgia that got over 10 Ines of rain and so there was water standing for a while but fortunately it's getting drier out there is it's kind of moved off those fields and and of course it's blazing hot out there today right so that's that's helping us but it it's too hot to get out there and do any fi work but we're kind of monitoring that situation we had a little bit of fruit shed and stuff like that but nothing nothing crazy and so you know overall I'd say the crop looks good we still got a long way to go on it though it's just now you know middle of August and we'll we'll get started in September I'm sure and it'll go on through Thanksgiving and end of December and some cases it starts in September with some of our earliest planted and that's another thing that's so cool about Georgia compared to other places most other places in the cotton Bel plant their cotton in about 10 days late April first part of May is whenever most places are putting cotton in the ground but in Georgia we could plant from April 1st to June 10th really wow and I mean that kind of disperses some of your economic risk too right if you have a cotton picker you're using it for longer than a lot of these other guys across the belt or these 12 row planners or or whatever labor right you can disperse that over a longer disperse your risk yeah disperse your risk and it helps with risk in terms of planting dates and like these kind of storms that come through you know we have a lot of unique challenges but we have a lot of unique opportunities too to kind of disperse that risk but the April planted stuff will start getting ready here in about September and then we'll go until October defoliating and even up till the first Frost defoliating some of that late stuff and then we'll just pick until we're done you you pack that calendar year for sure from January to December there's something happening when we touched on it a little bit earlier but we are sitting here in the studio for talking cotton podcast tell us a little bit more about the show and tell our listeners how they might be able to find it if they want to dive deeper this is the ug Tiff campus podcast room talking codon is recorded here and also all about the Pod with the peanut team this is the first year that we've done it it's been fun it presents some unique opportunities for us I think it should be available on Apple and Spotify and I think I've got it on Amazon there's also a link on the Cotton Team website which is ugac cotton.com we'll be sure to link that in the show notes just to get listeners directly there um from our podcast to yours Hing get the listeners out there and learning more well Camp thank you for having us down like we said earlier we love coming down to tiffon it's always a good time um always exciting to talk cotton it's something that coming from the Midwest is a whole new crop for me to look out a car window and see as we're driving across the state um but so fascinating so thank you for giving us a little glimpse into the cotton life here oh yeah y'all come back and we'll eat lunch it sounds good thanks for listening to cultivating curiosity a podcast produced by the ug College of agricultural and environmental Sciences a special thanks to Mason mlin talk for our music and sound effects find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts