Senior leadership in the Trump administration have told journalists in the past day or two that the assistance that the President talked about late last week could be announced in days not weeks or months like the Disaster Bill has been.

Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney told journalists in Washington this morning that this is an all hands on deck issue. Americas farmers need to understand that the Administration has its back according to reports. Secretary Perdue has been quoted as saying assistance in response to the Chinese deal breaking down is a very high priority. The Secretary is currently on a tour of Asian countries this week.

Last week, a group of over 30 cotton growers and ginners from the Southeast made a trip to Washington, DC to speak to our representatives about a number of topics facing our industry. The group consisting of from 2 to 9 from each of the six southeastern states visited most of the offices of the Senators and Representatives from their respective states. While a few of the visits were with staffers alone, many of the Congressmen and women met with the groups.

The group wanted to relay our appreciation to Congress regarding inclusion in the last year of the 2014 Farm Bill and passage of the 2018 Farm Bill on time and in the process giving cotton the safety net we’ve been missing for some time. Other issues that were on the front of everyone’s mind was Disaster Assistance stemming from the two hurricanes that affected our region last year. Additionally, stabilizing trade and encouraging the President to finalize a trade deal with China were issues that had long term effects.

Earlier today, the NCC hosted a couple webinars to learn more about the changes to the Farm Bill and the inclusion of seed cotton in Title I for the remainder of the current (2014) farm bill. Today’s webinars were mostly for the farmers and gins in the Southeast and the remainder will be geared toward those in other regions. Information on the Webinars can be found in our earlier post FOUND HERE.

All fo the slides and spreadsheets discussed on the webinars are being posted on the National Cotton Council’s page on the Farm Bill Changes. In addition to the webinar information, slides, and spreadsheet. Many of the questions asked by participants and those t Continue reading →

The National Cotton Council will be hosting a series of Webinars to get as much information out to cotton producers as possible as fast as practical. This program was just dropped last Friday and worksheets and decision tools are being developed by multiple sources. Please refer to the accompanying files for dates, times and additional information on the new program.

DSF

By now you’ve probably heard that significant changes to the farm program for cotton was made in the recently passed by congress. The changes were included in the disaster relief section of the bill and included fixes to both cotton and dairy. Beginning with the 2018 crop seed cotton will be eligible for PLC and ARC. There are also significant changes in that generic base will be converted to something else going forward.

Because producers are making planting and financing decisions right now or in the very near future, the National Cotton Council is scheduling a series of Webinars to explain the changes and the decisions that need to be made. The Council will also be using YouTube and other social media to get information out to producer and Ginners as quickly as Continue reading →

This morning the National Cotton Council released its annual cotton acreage planting intensions survey. The survey which was open from mid December to mid January. Based on the survey respondents, the NCC is expecting an increase of 3.7% or 466 thousand acres. The total expected plantings for the US is 13.078 Million acres.

For the Southeast, the NCC is expecting a small, 2.3%, increase in acres. The Southeast Continue reading →