Story Date: Friday, August 29, 2008

Field day held; donation announced

By Curt Hodges

TRUMANN — Although signs state “Where Cotton is King,” there is about 600 acres of corn on the Judd Hill Foundation experimental farm, Judd Hill Foundation trustee Mike Gibson said at the 14th Judd Hill Cotton Technology Field Day on Thursday.

But Gibson hastily explained that the corn was there “on a rotational basis,” and cotton is still king and is the main thrust of experiments on the working farm, on which many kinds of experiments are conducted each growing season.

Those experiments include various varieties of cotton being tested for production and other factors; variable rate herbicide and pesticide applications; variable rate center pivot irrigation experiments, precision agriculture; herbicide-resistant weeds and cotton-corn crop rotation practices, the reason for the corn acreage.

Besides the tours of experimental projects, attended by several hundred producers and others in agriculture, the annual field day includes speakers who talk about a number of subjects dealing with agriculture and cotton specifically.

Stepping away from the agriculture theme for a short time, Gibson announced a $1 million commitment made to Arkansas State University by the Judd Hill Foundation for the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Health Sciences at ASU.

The gift provides a restricted source of funds for repair and maintenance of the Center, which is under construction north of the Chickasaw Building on the campus.

“We are extremely pleased and proud to receive this commitment from the Judd Hill Foundation,” ASU Chancellor Dr. Robert Potts said. “This financial commitment will go a long way toward helping an already solid foundation in the Reynolds Center.”

Upon completion, the center will ensure growth in the university’s College of Nursing and Health Professions in preparing students to meet the growing need for health professionals in this part of the state.

The center is being built with a $14.5 million gift from the Donald W, Reynolds Foundation given in May 2007 to construct the 3-story building to support the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Part of that gift agreement required ASU to commit to raise within a restricted endowment, 20 percent of the grant, which amounts to $2.9 million. The Judd Hill gift is part of that match.

Dr. Susan Hanrahan, dean of the college, commented that will help provide the means to allow the college to graduate even more health-care specialists to be able to meet the needs of the future.

She said since its establishment, the college has graduated more than 500 health-care providers, 70 percent of whom are working in this part of the state.

Speakers for this year’s field day luncheon were J. BERRYE WORSHAM, president and chief executive officer of Cotton Inc., and Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry.

“We recognize these are tough times for cotton because of the prices of corn, soybeans and wheat going up dramatically and the costs of energy and interest rising and cotton acreage declining,” Worsham said. “Cotton has taken kind of a hit over the last couple of years, and we recognize that 70 cents on the futures price for cotton is not nearly enough.”

Bright spots for cotton

There are bright spots for cotton, Worsham said, that will pay dividends in the future. Globally, the forecast is that worldwide demand for cotton will be higher than U.S. production for cotton for the second straight year and that will continue to reduce excess inventory of cotton.

“I believe in the 2009-10 crop year we will see an even greater spread between demand and production, and those inventories will get down to very critically low levels,” he said. That is always a predictor of price changes, and Worsham said he is not sure if the changes will come in three months, six months or longer “but the fundamentals for cotton are getting stronger as we go forward.”

Exports are critical for the future of U.S. cotton, the Cotton Inc. official said. More than 75 percent of U.S. cotton will end up on world markets.

Berry said he believes that American agriculture, and particularly the kind of agriculture practiced in the Mississippi River Delta will continue to thrive and provide the food and fiber for the needs of America and the world.

And that will continue to be, he said, despite what kind of farm bill the industry may be working under.

Recalling that he has been involved in the writing of four farm bills, Berry said it is his belief that the 2008 farm bill will be the last one that will be written that is like what agriculture needs to provide the safety net that ensures the safety and plenty of U.S. agriculture production.

“The good news,” Berry said, is that technology coming on line, the ability to use good land, 50 inches of rainfall a year and a superhighway [Mississippi River] to the rest of the world. “I don’t see any way that agriculture can’t be a good investment in the future and this area a successful place to make money. I am convinced that even without a farm bill we will be able to do well,” Berry said.

“The other part of that story is that energy is going to become a new crop, from cellulose that is converted to alcohol fuel,” he said. Berry said he was in Denver this week for the Democratic Convention and saw E85 alcohol fuel at $2.66 a gallon compared to $3.70 for regular gasoline.

“So ethanol, wind farms, solar panels” will all become part of the future mix to meet the nation’s energy requirements, Berry said. There are places already in the United States where you can see acres of solar panels collecting solar energy and converting it into electricity. Wind farms where giant windmills churn out more electricity and fields of grass destined to become motor fuel.

“In Turkey you hardly ever see a roof that doesn’t have a solar panel to heat water using the sun’s rays and heat,” the congressman said.

curth@jonesborosun.com