Grower Spotlight

Calan Harper is the kind of cotton grower who knows his crops inside and out … or more appropriately in his case, above and below. That’s because he’s a licensed pilot who’s looked at his farm from thousands of feet in the air, and he’s also an expert on the ground at managing the wide variety of soil types he has to deal with.

Calan is a third-generation grower farming about 800 acres of cotton near the town of Wray, Georgia, along with 700 acres of peanuts and corn. Calan has become a big fan of NexGen® varieties, partly because of how well they perform on his particular land.

“We have some soils that are sandy or rocky or have a lot of clay,” he explained. “In certain places, we can have 100 acres with five different soil types.”

Calan was introduced to NexGen varieties in 2015 on the recommendation of his seed dealer. He first planted NG 5007 B2XF, and it worked well. He stayed with NexGen, and a couple of years later, he also planted NG 5711 B3XF and was extremely pleased with the results.

“The 5711 was the most consistent variety we’d ever seen,” he said. “It made good yields on all its acres across all soil types.” Since then, Calan has eventually gone to planting 100% NexGen. Among other varieties, he’s also had success with NG 4190 B3XF and NG 3299 B3XF. His cotton acres are roughly split 50/50 between dryland and irrigated.

“I’ve known Calan a long time, and we have a great relationship,” said agronomist Brandon Phillips, his Americot representative. “He likes to experiment, and he does a really good job finding ways to make the best yields possible.”

“I knew Brandon when he was working as a crop consultant,” Calan noted. “We rely on him to point us in the right directions.”

Calan and his wife Kristin have twin six-year-old girls and a four-month-old son, so they naturally have their hands full of responsibilities beyond farming. But nevertheless, Calan still manages to find time for his other love, flying.

“My father was a crop duster,” he said, “so I grew up around planes and liked to fly. I got my pilot’s license while I was in college in 2007. My first plane was a Piper Cherokee and I have a Piper Pacer now.”

“Calan is very intelligent,” Brandon added, “and that shows in his success. I saw him get four bales out of one field of NexGen 5711, and he even gets 1300 – 1400 pounds on some of his dryland acres.”

“NexGen gives us good yields, whether on dry or irrigated land,” said Calan in conclusion. “But my favorite is still 5711 because it’s so consistent. It really puts the bales in the field.”

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

It’s a real point of pride for a family to have the designation of being a “Century Farm” – meaning they’ve been in continuous operation for a hundred years – but it’s an even more exclusive honor to become a Two Century Farm, which is a distinction Bert Pitt and his family are approaching.

“I’m the sixth generation on our farm, which was started around 1825,” Bert said. “The house where we live was completed in 1830. But it’s been updated,” he added. “My wife Gwen likes to dabble in interior decorating.”

From their modest start so long ago, the Pitts’ operation has grown to about 1000 acres in St. Lewis and Macclesfield, North Carolina, with 700 acres planted in cotton and most of the rest in sweet potatoes. The farm has also become an example of modern practices and success. In fact, Bert won an award last year for cotton production in his category by yielding an average of 1366 pounds on non-irrigated land.

“There’s a lot of respect for Bert around here,” said Mike Webb, the Pitts’ Americot representative. “He’s a real stand-up guy, and with his family history – and their beautiful home — he’s almost like someone in a storybook.” Mike added that Bert is a loyal Americot customer who’s had very good success with NexGen® varieties.

“In 2017, we tried NexGen on the recommendation of our seed dealer,” Bert began. “We planted it on a few acres and really liked it.”

Based on that first year’s results, Bert planted more NexGen acres in 2018. And then something happened to really solidify his decision: Hurricane Florence, a devastating Category 4 storm, came ashore in September that year and caused extensive damage across the Carolinas. Many growers lost their entire crops.

“Florence hit right down the road from us,” Bert recalled, “but that NexGen cotton stood up to it. We were really impressed, and just tickled that the cotton survived.”

After that unplanned test in 2018, Bert increased his NexGen acres every year, and now about 90% of his cotton is NexGen. Some of the varieties he likes are NG 3195 B3XF and NG 3299 B3XF. For the last two years, Bert has also planted NG 4936 B3XF – and that has a unique success story of its own.

“In early August of 2021, I was worried about that 4936 because the crop just didn’t look right,” he said. “I called Americot, and they sent two guys out to look at it. They checked the fields and the plants and assured me nothing was wrong and the crop was going to be fine.”

They were right. The NexGen 4936 in those fields went on to produce above-average yields.

“It was some of the best cotton we ever had,” Bert said. “The last row picked just as good as the first.”

In addition to the great yield, Bert was impressed with the responsive service Americot delivered when he needed it.

“The people you deal with are a key,” he added. “I like all the NexGen people and their service, and that’s important.”

As a sixth-generation member of his family on their land, Bert and Gwen (who have been married for 44 years) naturally wonder what the farm’s future looks like. They have one daughter whose husband is a firefighter, and Bert said his son-in-law helps around the farm when he can. The Pitts also have two grandsons who show active interest in agriculture.

“They’re involved in FFA and they’re learning about farming in school. Sometimes they even teach me a few things,” he added with a laugh.

In their spare time, Bert and Gwen enjoy going to their beach house about 100 miles away, or hosting big cookouts at their home, which also has an eight-acre fishing pond.

Finally, when asked to sum up his feelings about NexGen, Bert said, “I definitely recommend it. You’re going to like the people and the yield you get.”

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

by Larry Aylward, Cotton Grower Magazine; Used by permission

Cotton is king in the Lone Star State, and brothers Toby and Tommy Robertson are honored to be members of the king’s court for the state that produces the nation’s most cotton.

The Robertsons are fifth generation farmers who own and operate Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in Robstown, Texas, about 20 miles west of Corpus Christi.

“We’ve done this our whole lives and don’t know anything different,” Toby says.

Triple-T stands for Toby, Tommy and their father Tracy, who the brothers bought out in 2018 when Tracy retired.

“I asked my dad if he would be offended if we changed the name to Double-T and he said, ‘Why would you do that?’ And I said, ‘Because we only have two Ts now,’” Toby says with a laugh. “It seemed like it might offend him, so I just dropped it.”

Toby and Tommy began working on the farm before they turned 10. Both also attended college but decided to spend their careers as farmers, joining their father as full-time partners when Triple-T was created in 1997.

The brothers farm 11,000 acres, consisting of cotton, corn, sorghum, wheat, and occasionally sesame. “Cotton is our cash crop,” Toby says, noting that 5,600 acres will be devoted to cotton this year.

The Robertsons have used Americot’s NexGen® varieties since 2016. A reason they chose NexGen is because they want to support Lubbock, TX-based Americot, a privately owned and operated
entity, says Toby, noting that Americot President and CEO David Hicks is a farmer who understands the wants and needs of Texas cotton farmers.

“He understands our plight,” Toby says. “There’s more of a hometown The Robertson brothers feel with Americot.”

Tommy says he and Toby are impressed with Americot’s service. “If we have any issues, they are here to help us,” he adds.

 

Outstanding Yields and Quality

The first NexGen variety the Robertsons planted in 2016 was NG 5007 B2XF, which had excellent yield potential but didn’t grade as well as they desired. The following year the Robertsons planted NG 5711 B3XF, which yielded and graded higher. Subsequently, they began planting more acres of NG 5711 B3XF.

A few years later, the Robertsons began planting NG 4936 B3XF. “We had outstanding yields with it, higher than what we have ever had before, and the quality was excellent,” Toby says of the medium maturing variety that features Bollgard® 3 XtendFlex® Technology.

The brothers’ overall experience with the varieties is why they’ve stuck with NexGen. They are also now planting NG 4190 B3XF, which has better seed vigor and more yield potential as well as outstanding quality, Toby says.

“We’ve been growing a lot of 1,200- to 1,500-pound cotton an acre with NexGen varieties,” Toby adds. Says Tommy, “The varieties produce very well.”

What separates one variety from another in terms of quality? “Strength and length, mainly,” Toby says. “That’s what the mills are looking for. We want to be above a 36 staple length. And anything that has a strength of 30 and over is a hot commodity that is in demand.”

NG 4190 B3XF has a strength of 29-30 grams per tex and a staple length of 37-38, according to Americot. NG 4936 B3XF has a strength of 29-31 grams per tex and a staple length of 37-39.

Toby says NG 4190 B3XF and NG 4936 B3XF are both “showy” varieties that stand out in the field.

“We’re growing a little bit of NG 4936 B3XF, but NG 4190 B3XF is our bell cow,” Toby says. “We plant other varieties, too, which I think is prudent.”

Triple-T markets most of its cotton through CalCot, a producer-owned cooperative. “Most of CalCot’s market is in the export market, and the export market wants those 36 to 38 staple varieties,” Toby says.

In terms of acreage, Triple-T is not increasing or decreasing the number of cotton acres in 2023. “We’re dryland cotton, 100 percent. We just don’t have enough rainfall (about 30 inches a year) to grow cotton on cotton,” Toby says.

The Robertson brothers also rotate their cotton crop with corn and sorghum, which is good for the soil, Toby explains. “Healthwise, that allows our soil to rest,” he adds. “Cotton takes more nutrients out of the ground and doesn’t put nearly as much organic matter back in the soil.”

The weather in South Texas can be challenging to grow cotton, especially when it’s severely hot and dry. Thankfully, the subsoil moisture in the cotton fields offers favorable growing conditions.

“We don’t need a lot of rain; our soil retains a lot of water whenever it’s full,” Toby says. “But it can be trying on your nerves whenever you want get a crop up and you don’t have the moisture to do so.”

The fact that NG 4190 B3XF and NG 4936 B3XF offer strong drought and heat tolerance is vital, Toby says.

“We have high temperatures at night from mid-May through the summer, ranging from 75 degrees F to 80 degrees F. We need drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant varieties,” he adds.

 

Home on the Range

Toby and Tommy both attended college before coming back to the farm back in the mid-1990s. Tommy attended Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University) for a time, but knew his heart was elsewhere.

“I just decided it was best for me to come back and start farming,” Tommy says.

Toby graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agriculture economics and had his sights set on doing something other than farming.

“I wanted to do my own thing, but I also had a fear of missing out by not being on the farm,” he says.

Toby interviewed with a major agricultural chemical company, which wanted him to relocate to North Carolina. When he told his father, Tracy offered him a piece of the farm, where Tommy was already working. Toby also then decided his heart was with the farm.

“To be honest, once you start farming, it’s really hard to get out of it whether you like it or not,” Toby says. “You’re kind of joined at the hip with the farm once you decide to do it.”

But there are no regrets. Toby says he and Tommy live productive lives.

“Farming is in our blood,” Toby says. “It has been a great lifestyle. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.”

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

by Larry Aylward, Cotton Grower Magazine; Used by permission

When people drove by the cotton field, they noticed. And then they started talking about what they noticed.

“That was a pretty field of cotton we had out there near the road last year, and people were talking a lot about how pretty it looked,” says Bob Hyman, who farms cotton with his brother, Randy, in Oak City, NC. “It especially looked nice after we defoliated it.”

Bob and Randy, who have been farming cotton together for more than 30 years, give much of the credit for the splendid-looking cotton to the variety – Americot’s NexGen® 3195 B3XF – which the brothers first began planting in 2021. Last year, they planted NG 3195 B3XF on 200 acres, several of which were visible from a main road. The variety had people turning their heads when they drove by.

“We had several people in the area asking about the variety because they were interested in planting it,” Bob adds, noting that NG 3195 B3XF averaged a yield of slightly more than 1,300 pounds an acre. “It really did well for us.”

It did so well – also earning a premium grade for the second year in a row – that the Hyman brothers plan to plant more of the variety this season.

NG 3195 B3XF is an early-medium maturing Bollgard® 3 XtendFlex® Technology variety that offers good heat tolerance and consistent performance. It also offers high yield potential and high turnout. It has good early-season vigor and plant growth, and has the tendency to stand out from other varieties when most of the bolls have opened.

In terms of fiber quality, NG 3195 B3XF offers 39-42% turnout and a staple length of 36-37, according to Americot. Its strength is 30-31 grams per tex.

NG 3195 B3XF was one of Americot’s top-performing varieties in 2022 and consistently ranked at the top of all the Americot Cotton Evaluation (ACE) Trials across the cotton belt the past few years. It led the 2022 North Carolina/Virginia ACE Trials with a crop value of $714/acre and a lint yield of 1,287 pounds/acre and has been a top performer in the NC OVT on-farm field trials for the past two years.

 

About the Farm

Oak City is in Martin County, a heavily farmed area of cotton, tobacco, peanuts, corn, and soybeans. Last year, farmers planted about 33,000 acres of cotton in the county. NG 3195 B3XF has performed well in North Carolina and throughout the cotton belt.

Bob and Randy are both graduates of North Carolina State University. Randy has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering, and Bob has a bachelor’s in agronomy. They began farming together in 1991. In addition to cotton, they grow wheat and soybeans. This year, they are replacing their tobacco crop with clary sage, an herb that is used for medicinal purposes and as a spice.

“We’ve been in tobacco for a long time, but we are getting out of it because it’s too labor intensive, and labor costs continue to rise,” Bob says. “There’s a lot of work to do with a tobacco crop and it lasts from February through November.”

Like most any area, there are weather challenges with growing cotton in the Southeast and specifically where the Hyman brothers’ farm is located, about 100 miles from the Atlantic coast. But Bob says the biggest challenge last year was the increased cost of inputs. “Fertilizer, chemicals … all the inputs have really gone up,” he adds, noting that he expects the same challenges this year. “Last year, we were trying to save money anyway we could without hurting ourselves with what we were trying to grow.”

Regarding the weather, a dry spell can hamper the brothers’ operation because they don’t irrigate.

“We’re also about two hours from the coast. If we have any hurricanes … that can cause us a whole lot of problems,” Bob says.

Randy notes that weed control is also a challenge, particularly pigweed (Palmer amaranth), which can grow as tall as a small shade tree and rob nutrients from cotton. “It seems to be getting worse every year,” he says.

While dicamba is available to control pigweed, the Hyman brothers are hesitant to use it because it can severely impact tobacco and sweet potato growth, crops that are grown by other farmers near them. “But we might be getting to a point where we have to spray it, and just be very careful with it,” he adds.

 

More NexGen

The Hyman brothers originally planted the NG 4936 B3XF variety when they first began using Americot’s brand three years ago. But the variety didn’t yield much because of plant bug damage. Still, Bob and Randy were able to sell their crop at a premium because of its high grade.

In 2022, the Hyman brothers grew 750 acres of cotton. This year will be the fourth year they’ve used a NexGen variety. In the previous three years, the varieties received premium grades, earning an average of 3.5 to 4 cents more per pound.

The Hyman brothers are so impressed with NexGen that they plan to increase acreage of the NG 3195 B3XF variety by 50% this year to around 300 acres. With the premium grade and the improved yield, the variety has been a win-win, the brothers agree.

Bob is also impressed with the variety’s germination and emergence, not to mention its consistent vigor throughout the season. He also says it is easy to control and picks well.

“Sometimes some varieties don’t pick that clean. This variety picks clean. It looked good behind the picker when it was done being picked,” Bob says.

Even though the NG 4936 B3XF variety didn’t yield much the first year because of bug damage, Randy says he and his brother learned something from the experience: spray an insecticide earlier so it doesn’t happen again. So, with the bugs under control, the yields of NG 3195 B3XF have increased dramatically the last two seasons.

There’s not much, if anything, to not like about NG 3195 B3XF, Randy says.

“Having a field that looks snow white in the fall, and looks clean after being picked. Then you get a good yield and a good grade – that really means a lot to us,” he adds. “It’s just a nice all-around variety.”

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

By the time a bag of NexGen seed reaches you, it represents a long and complicated process, starting years earlier in the various research, breeding, and testing phases. Then eventually the seed reaches the final production steps, when it’s actually planted, harvested, ginned, cleaned, and bagged for sale.

Americot contracts with a select network of exceptional growers around the country to produce our seed, and one of the best is Ware Farms in the Dome Valley area of Arizona, near Yuma. A fifth-generation family farm, the operation is led by William Ware and his adult children, daughter Megan and son Jake.

“My dad and my grandfather started planting cotton years ago,” William explained, “and now we rotate it with produce. We also have alfalfa and Bermudagrass. We generally plant about 800 – 1200 acres, and it changes from year-to-year.”

Among those many acres over the past years have been 10 – 12 NexGen varieties, which the Wares grow for both lint and seed, as well as for our annual ACE Trials. They’ve been producing seed for Americot for several years.

After a cotton crop has been ginned, the separated seed is tested in a lab for quality, consistency, and integrity of traits. Naturally, Americot wants all NexGen products we sell to be of the highest possible quality, so the seed has to meet strict requirements.

“We always get good seed from the Wares,” said Max McGuire, Field Production Supervisor at West Gaines Seed in Eloy, Arizona. West Gaines Seed is the processing facility that evaluates the crop and then bags the approved seed for Americot commercial sales.

“The Wares really know how to care for their cotton crops,” added Max. “They make sure that everything gets done right.”

 

Making Good Cotton Better

“They’re some of our best growers,” agreed Karen Geldmacher, the Americot germplasm specialist in Arizona who has worked with the Wares for more than four years. “They’ve dedicated themselves to advancing our brand.” The Ware family is clearly committed to producing superior seed for Americot, and because the area around Yuma is ideal for growing cotton, they can choose to plant a wide range of varieties with different maturities.

“We start with the early-to-mid-maturity varieties in February or March, so we can follow that crop with produce,” William said, “but planting that early means we’re dealing with borderline temperatures.”

“We aim for mid-February,” added Jake, “but our rule is that we don’t plant if we have to wear gloves.”

By planting several different varieties, the Wares can stagger their harvesting schedule, with the first crops normally being picked in August or early September.

In addition to managing their own cotton, the Wares operate a custom-harvesting business for other farms in the area, using four big John Deere harvesters.

“There are about 12,000 acres of cotton in Yuma County,” Jake said, “and we pick about 6,000 of them.” “It’s two straight months of brutal work,” added William.

 

Family and Friends

Between the harvesting business and the year-round crop production on their own farms, the Wares maintain a full-time staff of 13 employees.

“We like being able to keep people going all year, especially since most of them are friends or family,” said William with a bit of a laugh. “We’re fortunate to have so many good people around us, and we love working with Karen.”

Yet regardless of the many staffing needs, it’s still a family farm in every sense. William’s daughter Megan has been actively involved in daily operations for the past year, following the sad passing of her mother, Heather. Mrs. Ware had been a vital part of the business, and Megan has now seamlessly picked up those responsibilities.

“Megan really stepped up for us after I lost my wife last year,” said William. “And we’re lucky that she and Jake and I think alike.”

“It’s brought us closer as a family,” Megan said. “We make decisions together, and we’ve learned a lot about each other.” Megan now has two young children of her own, so the sixth generation of the Ware family is already underway.

 

NexGen Varieties Set The Bar High

“It’s a bonus for the Wares to produce high-quality seed for NexGen, so they want value-added varieties that perform well,” said Karen. “Some of their favorites are NG 3406 B2XF for the shorter maturity, and NG 4936 B3XF and NG 5711 B3XF for longer seasons.”

“When choosing varieties, we look for seed size and vigor,” said William. “We want that push power for strong germination. We also really like the traits and technology in NexGen seed.”

Out of all the NexGen varieties the Wares have planted, perhaps the biggest success they’ve had has been with NG 5711 B3XF. “We typically get five bales out of the 5711,” said William. “We made 5.4 bales in 2019, 5.5 in 2020, and 5.4 again last year.” “He’s a rock star with that one!” said Karen enthusiastically.

NG 5150 B3XF was another big hit for us,” agreed Jake, who makes most of the decisions about what to plant. “It blew the doors off on yield. We also had really good luck with 4936 B3XF, on a lot of different soil types and elevations. We’re beyond happy with NexGen. They’ve got seed for every situation.”

Americot is grateful and honored to be partners with the Wares for their outstanding seed production, and every grower who buys NexGen varieties is a beneficiary of the extra effort and commitment that our production operations deliver.

“It’s a lot to do,” said William in conclusion, “but I still look forward to going to work every day.”

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

by Jim Steadman, Cotton Grower Magazine; Used by permission

Joe D. White has been farming in the Davidson, OK, area for roughly 45 years. Cotton, peanuts, corn, wheat, cattle – all are part of the family farm operation he manages with his son Austin. The land – and the way they manage it – is multi-generational. He’ll tell you that good years and bad years are just part of farming in that area along the Red River. But even the good years didn’t quite prepare him for a whopping 5.4 bale per acre cotton yield in 2021.

Ask him how it happened, and he’ll tell you it was a bit of luck and a lot of blessing.

“We were blessed,” says White. “We don’t do much different than we do every year, but I guess we happened to be in the right spot at the right time. All I can tell you for sure is we planted it and took care of it, and the water just happened to be right.

“We made 2,558 pounds per acre in that field,” he adds. “We had quite a bit of 3-bale and 4-bale cotton on our irrigated acres, while our dryland cotton was between ¾ and 2 bales per acre. In all, it’s probably as good a crop as we’ve ever had on average.”

The variety of choice for that record field was NexGen 4936 B3XF.

 

Steady, Patient Approach to Farming

White describes their farming operation as not too big and not too little – just a good sized farm by Oklahoma standards.

The Whites farm together, but each manages his own acres and crops – much like White did when he started farming with his father in the late 1970s. Together, they share equipment, labor, and expertise. Between the two of them, they have eight irrigation circles. Roughly ¾ of their total cotton acres are dryland. Two full-time farm hands and a full-time cowboy to help tend the cattle make up the rest of the farm team, with everyone pitching in to do a little bit of everything when and where needed.

“I’ve been growing cotton for as long as I could drive a tractor,” recalls White. “Oklahoma is growing more cotton now because the profitability of wheat hasn’t been that good over the past few years. Dryland acres have picked up.”

That’s not to say that cotton farming in southwest Oklahoma is easy.

“Around here, yields are so inconsistent that you can’t depend on anything,” says White. “You may harvest a bumper crop one year and not harvest anything the next. You really have to play the averages.”

Weed control is another factor influencing cotton acres, and it’s getting tough enough to make White consider backing off cotton acres a bit this year.

“We’ve always had pigweed, but now we’re getting grasses that we can’t control,” he says. “Grasses used to not be a problem, but they’re beginning to be. We’re probably going to add a little more corn to our mix this year. We need to get to where we’re rotating crops a little bit better, and corn will help us get back to that.

“My dad always said we just farm by the seat of our pants,” he laughs. “And that’s probably true. There’s no set pattern of what we do from year to year. The markets kind of determine what we do. You have to be able to adjust and change your plan.”

“For example, right now we’re just super dry,” he adds. “We have to plan that way too. We can’t do the same thing every year because every year’s a little bit different.”

 

Adapting for Efficiency

Shane Osborne, Southwest Sales/Agronomist for Americot who works closely with the Whites, thinks they’re probably being a bit too modest.

“Their success is a function of taking an educated approach to everything they do,” says Osborne. “While a lot of farmers just do what their fathers and grandfathers taught them, the Whites are always focused on finding helpful information and education. I would say their talent is putting words into action. If they learn a new principle that helps them be more efficient or effective, it is instantly adopted and executed with great timing.”

The Whites have discovered the advantages that new farming technologies can provide for their operation. Austin, an Oklahoma State graduate who has been back on the farm full time for about five years, has driven some of that technology growth.

“The biggest thing I really enjoy is the ability to control your irrigation from your phone,” says White. “It’s not 100%, but what we have sure is nice. So is the GPS and RTK on the tractors. I used to figure I’d never use something like that, but now I can say I can’t live without it.”

Like many farm operations, the Whites struggle with labor concerns, knowing that they’re fortunate to have a good team in place. When it comes to harvest, they do reach out for additional help.

“We have a round bale stripper and run it as hard as we can on dryland acres and do as much as we can with it,” White says. “On irrigated acres, we have a picker crew come up from south Texas. They’ve been helping us for years. We even picked some of the dryland acres this year just to get through with harvest in a timely manner.”

 

Supporting Local Partners

Now, back to that 5.4 bales per acre yield. White will tell you he likes to support people and companies that are U.S. owned and operated. Doing so, he believes, is helpful for everyone. It’s one of the reasons he leans heavily on NexGen varieties.

“They are 100% American owned,” he says. “They have good varieties, and they work well. Like all other seed companies, they do have varieties that don’t particularly fit what we do, but they also have a lot of varieties I do like.”

In other words, the varieties, and the Whites both work hard.

“It seems like we work all the time, and that’s pretty much by choice,” notes White. “We like what we’re doing. I do look forward to slowing down, but I don’t look forward to quitting. We’re still growing and doing new things. Really and truly, if you’re not growing at least a little bit, you’re kind of backing up.”

And what about expectations for that prized cotton field in 2022?

“I told someone that yield may have been the worst thing that happened to us,” he laughs. “We can’t think that’s normal. But it does put a smile on your face. And in this business, you need a good time every now and then. It helps.”

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    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
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  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

Whether you’re talking about a football game, a military battle or a cotton crop, the likelihood of achieving successful results can depend on the strategy you lay out beforehand. Of course, even the best plans and goals have to be adaptable when you get hit with surprises.

When it comes to cotton varieties, Dane Mullins knows just how that works. He and his family operate 5M Farms, which features about 5000 acres of cotton, wheat, and sorghum on land near Silverton that Dane’s wife’s family has worked “forever,” as he described it.

Given their many years of experience, the team at 5M has gotten really good at being able to adjust when Nature shifts things around on them – and NexGen has been part of that. A number of our varieties were planted at 5M in 2019, including NG 3930 B3XF, a new Bollgard 3 variety which was a late addition to Dane’s program as a result of a change in plans.

“We usually go for longer-season varieties on our dryland acres, but last year we ended up having to replant late,” he explained. “So then we tried the NG 3930 with its shorter maturity, and it really worked for us.”

One of the newest offerings from NexGen, NG 3930 B3XF is a widely adapted, earlyto-medium maturity variety that features both the latest Bollgard® 3 genetics and XtendFlex® Technology. Developed to excel on dryland and limited-water scenarios, especially on Verticillium wilt acres, 3930 has excellent seedling vigor and outstanding fiber quality.

“With our light water situation, we can’t really grow for yield, so grade and quality are more important to us,” Dane added. “And stress tolerance is key.”

Other NexGen varieties that 5M used successfully last year include NG 4545 B2XF, NG 4777 B2XF and NG 4689 B2XF, all with proven Bollgard II® Technology for worm protection. Like the NG 3930 variety, those popular medium-maturity varieties also offer superior Verticillium wilt tolerance and an excellent fiber package.

“They gave us the quality we wanted,” Dane said. “The NG 4545 was better than anything.”

The NexGen varieties he planted are also known for having exceptional seedling vigor, which is a feature that has impressed Dane.

“That seed is really good at coming up out of the ground,” he added, “and it doesn’t quit.”

Dane says he’s been a loyal customer of Americot and has planted our varieties or grown NexGen cotton for about 15 years, but his life has gone through many other changes during that same time span. He and his wife Lori are the parents of four young boys, aged 12, 8, 4 and 2. Maybe that helps explain why he’s so good at being adaptable.

More Spotlight Stories

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    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

You’ve probably heard the old expression “Tried and true,” which usually refers to a product or a process that has worked well in the past, and therefore continues to be trusted. For some growers, that same attitude can apply to cotton seed varieties.

Trey Ziegler of Silverton, Texas, is a good example. He and his father, Brad, are partners on their Circle Z Farms, a sprawling operation that produces both dryland cotton and irrigated cotton.

As for the tried-and-true aspect of their cotton growing, the Zieglers are big fans of established NexGen® XtendFlex® varieties. Those include Americot’s popular seed choices which have proven to perform without containing the well-known Bollgard® trait in them.

Specifically, Trey said they’ve had great results from NG 4792 XF and NG 3500 XF, both of which have high yield potential and superior Verticillium wilt tolerance.

Cotton with disease tolerance is an important factor in Trey’s decision-making, along with the XtendFlex Technology to help them deal with glyphosate resistant weeds. But otherwise, he’s not that concerned about including additional insect-protection traits.

“We didn’t have to spray for worms this year,” Trey said, when discussing Bollgard technologies, “but I know worms can be real bad for some people. We have a consultant who comes out and checks our fields for eggs, but it wasn’t a problem for us.”

The Zieglers are getting very good yields and fiber quality from the NexGen varieties they planted, so for the time being, Trey said he doesn’t feel the need to include other traits. “The NG 3500 variety was awesome,” he said, “and the NG 4792 was just as good. It’s a longer maturity and gave us good staple.”

NG 3500 XF is an early-medium maturity variety with an excellent fiber package, and NG 4792 XF is known for its exceptional disease tolerance, especially on wilt and blight pathogens. Both varieties are ideally suited for the high plains of Texas and southwestern Oklahoma, with reliable performance on either dryland or irrigated acres.

The Zieglers have been farming their land for at least five generations, and the next one is already in place — Trey and his wife Brandi have a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. The future has a lot of exciting potential for them.

As for future cotton plans, Trey admitted that he’ll probably be willing to try the new Bollgard varieties at some point. For now, though, he’s happy with his current choices, and the proof is there at harvest time.

“The NG 3500 and NG 4792 really worked for us,” he said. “We’ll definitely plant them again next year.”

“Trey and Dane have a great work ethic,” added Derrel, their Americot sales representative. “They’re good young farmers, and we need more of them.”

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  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

When it comes to making good choices about growing cotton, West Tennessee grower Drew Bailey is a perfect example.

Actually, the positive results of Drew’s effective decision-making go back even further in his life.

“I’m the fourth generation of my family here on the farm, so I grew up around agriculture,” he said, “but I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted to do with my life.” After graduating from high school, Drew left home to attend Middle Tennessee State University, where he majored in History and Geography. “My Mom really wanted me to get a college degree,” he added.

But eventually, Drew realized he wanted to get back to farming: good decision. While at MTSU, he also met his future wife, Misty, but she was a “city girl” from Nashville, and Drew wasn’t sure how she’d adjust to farm life. (“We’ve only got 14,000 people in our whole county,” he said with a laugh.)

Lucky for him, Misty adapted to country living. She and Drew were married in 2008, and they’re now the proud parents of three children, Lola, Evan and Ty.

Drew’s smart decisions about his farming have been extremely rewarding for him, too.

“We stopped planting cotton back in 2007, and went without it for ten years,” he said, “but we wanted the benefits of having it in our rotational mix. We like planting cotton behind corn.”

Drew explained that their operation prefers a three-way rotation of corn, cotton and soybeans to take advantage of organic matter in the soil and as a strategy against worms. The Baileys’ farm encompasses about 3800 acres, with roughly a third of it – 1200 acres – in cotton last year.

“In 2017, we were ready to plant cotton again, then in 2019, we heard about NexGen®, which was a new name to us,” Drew said. “We planted a little of it that year, and we were pleasantly surprised.”

Drew chose NG 4936 B3XF – another good decision – on the advice of his Americot sales representative Andy Rowsey. The NG 4936 has really impressed the Baileys with its performance and its versatility.

“Andy is a great resource for us, and he gave us confidence about planting NexGen,” Drew said. “We’ve had two years with it now, and we couldn’t be happier.”

After their outstanding results with NG 4936 that first season, the Baileys have continually increased the number of acres planted with it since.

“We’ve got wild variations in our soil types here,” Drew said, “and the NexGen 4936 works anywhere – from hills to creek bottoms, on clay or sandier soils – we can just put it in the planter and go. Even with our four or five different soil types, we’ve had great success with it.”

In addition to NG 4936 on the bulk of their acres, the Baileys planted other varieties, including NexGen 3729 B2XF, which Drew said also produced excellent yield and quality.

“We’re extremely pleased with NexGen,” Drew concluded. “We’ve had yields that we thought we’d never reach.”

Isn’t it great when good decisions really pay off?

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton

Grower Spotlight

One of the most rewarding aspects of having a growing company is getting to watch your customers succeed along with you. Americot is pleased to be able to highlight cotton growers who have benefited from our products. For this Grower Spotlight, we introduce you to Justin Hawkins from Leachville, Arkansas, in the northeastern part of the state.

Justin represents the fifth-generation members of the Hawkins family to farm their land, dating back to his great-great-grandfather who settled there in the early 1900s. Today the operation is jointly owned and managed by Justin and his brothers, Heath and Mark, along with their father, Cole. Collectively, the Hawkins Farm includes almost 5500 acres of various parcels of land, with about 3500 acres of it planted in cotton. The Hawkins family also grows peanuts, corn, watermelons and other crops.

“Our property is kind of scattered and stretched out from Black Oak to Monette to Manila,” explained Justin. “From end to end, it’s about 10 to 15 miles.” “It’s a very diverse operation, and they do a fantastic job with everything they grow,” said Chris Booker, North Delta Americot sales representative. “They get great yields every year, so it’s obvious they’re doing things right.”

To efficiently manage the widespread land and their company employees, the Hawkins family members have designated specific responsibilities to share and handle.

“My brother Mark and I take care of the row crops, and Heath is in charge of the watermelons,” Justin said, “and my dad oversees all of us.” In addition to the many other things that require his attention, Justin is the family member who’s generally given the job of making cotton seed decisions, and he’s a loyal customer to the NexGen® brand.

“We’ve been with Americot since the early 2000s. They supply good seed,” said Justin. “NexGen cotton seed gives us good yields, and they have the best fiber package we’ve found. We also like it because the seed works in our soil. It’s sandy loam and some gumbo.”

“They’ve had good results with the NG 3522 B2XF variety,” agreed Booker. “It works across all soil types, and it fits in great with their peanut-corn rotation.”

“I’ve known Chris a long time. He’s a good seed rep,” Justin added. “We get excellent service from Americot.”

“Justin and his family have bought NexGen cotton seed from Americot for a long time,” Booker said. “They’re good friends to the company… and to me.”

The Hawkins family has proven that they’ve been exceptional growers and good stewards of the land for well over a hundred years, but what does the future look like? Is there another generation awaiting their turn to run the farm? “Our kids are barely involved yet,” Justin said. “My son is only eleven, but when the time comes, he can do whatever he wants.”

More Spotlight Stories

  • Pitt Family Farms; Macclesfield, North Carolina
    Bert Pitt is Known for Deep Roots and High Yields
  • Triple-T Farms; Robstown, Texas
    At Triple-T Farms & Cattle Co. in South Texas, NexGen varieties have proved to be a natural fit for growing cotton
  • Hyman Brothers; Oak City, North Carolina
    Brothers Bob and Randy Hyman are impressed with many things about Americot’s NG 3195 B3XF variety, including its yield, premium grade, and the way it looks in the field
  • Ware Farms; Dome Valley, Arizona
    Family Operation Excels at Seed Production for Americot
  • White Farms; Davidson, Oklahoma
    Right field, right time, and a bit of blessing yields 5.4 bales per acre for an Oklahoma farm family.
  • 5M Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Dane Mullins has great results with NexGen®
  • Circle Z Farms; Silverton, Texas
    Trey Ziegler trusts "Tried & True" NexGen varieties on his farm
  • Bailey Farms; Gadsen, Tennessee
    Cotton grower Drew Bailey reaps the benefits of smart decisions
  • Hawkins Farm; Leachville, Arkansas
    After five generations, the Hawkins family is going stronger than ever
  • Byrum Farms; Windsor, Virginia
    Steele and Cecil Byrum are setting new standards in cotton
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