Cotton’s Agenda

Gary Adams

Inducing Innovation

The National Cotton Council-coordinated 2022 Beltwide Cotton Conferences will share cutting-edge research results and other timely information to help U.S. cotton producers continue as global pacesetters.

What is the meeting’s objective?

■ The annual forum brings together university and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers, regulatory agencies, Extension personnel/agents, consultants and industry sales/support personnel to exchange information about new products and production/processing systems. They also will share updates on cutting-edge research and issues affecting U.S. cotton. Cotton producers and processors can use this data to maximize efficiency and foster sustainability in their operations.

Key topics to be covered?

■ Programming still is being finalized for the 2022 BWCC, set for Jan. 4-6 at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. However, the halfday Cotton Consultants Conference, which begins at 8 a.m., Jan. 4, and is open to all registered participants, plans to provide a focus on cotton varieties. Included will be updates on new varieties, varietal screening with herbicides, managing the maturity of varieties across the Cotton Belt and developments in Bt cotton. The 2022 BWCC is set for Jan. 4-6 at the Marriott Research into Pix use Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. on racehorse varieties and a discussion of ThryvOn™ cotton and its effectiveness in providing season-long protection against tarnished plant bugs and thrips species will be addressed as well.

The conference presentations also will cover plant pathology and herbicide resistance concerns and other issues affecting U.S. cotton. Among them are: • The Biden Administration’s effect on agriculture. • Farm labor shortages. • The Endangered Species Act. • Changes in weather patterns and the effects on crops. • Carbon sequestration at the field level. • The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol® and that sustainability initiative’s enrollment progress.

The BWCC’s 12 cotton technical conferences will feature the second year of the Cotton Sustainability Conference. It will provide findings from current research and updates on emerging technology aimed at elevating U.S. cotton production and processing efficiency. Those sessions will meet concurrently beginning on the morning of Jan. 5 and conclude by noon, Jan. 6. The Sustainability Conference will focus on the Trust Protocol, including multiple panel discussions with many name brands and industry leaders, as well as sustainability experts. That conference also will focus on Field-to-Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and on carbon and organic markets. The Cotton Engineering-Systems Conference will cover data analytics, robotics, remote sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles, among others. The Quality/Utilization Conference will feature multiple international textile manufacturers discussing their raw cotton needs.

How do attendees register?

■ Those planning to attend the 2022 BWCC are encouraged to register by clicking on the registration tab at the BWCC home page, www.cotton. org/beltwide/. The home page also includes links to more information about the forum, including housing reservations. Registration costs for the 2022 BWCC before Dec. 16 are: • $200 for NCC/Cotton Foundation members, university and USDA researchers, Extension personnel, associations and consultants. • $500 for non-U.S. research, Extension, associations and consultants. • $400 for non-NCC/Foundation members. • $80 for students. On-site conference self-registration kiosks will be available 24 hours a day starting on the evening of Jan. 3. Beginning on the morning of Jan. 4, NCC staff will be available for attendees needing assistance with registration and name badge printing.

CCOY

Cotton Consultant of the Year

established 1981

Drake Perrow

2020 CCOY AWARD RECIPIENT

Last year, South Carolina crop consultant Drake Perrow, sole owner of Crop Companions Inc., was selected by his peers as the 2020 Cotton Consultant of the Year.

He tells his scouts, “Always look for the unusual, then investigate. Look at more of the field than you normally do. Having a producer’s cotton crop in your hands is a big responsibility.”

Perrow’s hands-on, look-youin-the-eye approach carries over to relationships with his clients. “I like to visit face to face with each farmer and come up with a decision together,” he says. “I believe if you surround yourself with good people, good things will happen to you. That’s the way I feel about this award.”

Cotton Consultant of the Year sponsored by

Can Ag Aviators And Drones Find Harmony?

One hundred years after airplanes were first used in applying insecticides to crops, a Mississippi State University flight lab is on a mission. It seeks to understand how today’s agricultural aviators can safely share the skies with unmanned aircraft systems. They often are referred to as UAS or drones.

Agricultural aviators treat more than 125 million acres of U.S. cropland each year, according to the National Agricultural Aviation Association. Flying as low as 10 feet off the ground and at speeds up to 140 mph, ag aviators share this low-altitude space with unmanned aircraft systems with greater frequency than other manned aircraft.

“With UAS increasingly populating the skies, it’s in everyone’s interest to better understand how these two types of aircraft can safely share airspace,” says Tom Brooks, director of MSU’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory. “We’re synthesizing available ag aviation data to better understand typical flight patterns and tendencies of our ag fliers. We plan to integrate this data with existing predictive models that will account for this vital aspect of aviation in developing safe integration of UAS into the national airspace system.”

Unmanned aircraft systems already aid emergency officials with disaster relief operations and support ag efforts and environmental assessments. Full integration into the national airspace system would enable them to operate with manned aircraft safely and regularly during emergency and non-emergency operations, while using many of the same air traffic management systems and procedures. By law, UAS must give the rightof-way to manned aircraft.

Low-Altitude Data Collection

Agricultural aviation appears, in some ways, to be an understudied aspect of aviation, according to Raspet researchers. For example, topographical obstacles, the curvature of the earth and the positioning of radars at airport terminals limit radar-provided information on low-flying agricultural aircraft. A widely used national database provides radar information for flights as low as 1,000 feet, but many agricultural aviators spend much of their time at heights 500 feet and lower.

For its analysis, Raspet has drawn from some 35,000 individual flight data logs of ag aviators via the NAAA and the Mississippi Agricultural Aviation Association. Data from 20 states is included, and Raspet researchers have worked to analyze regional trends.

“Most of this low-altitude data is below what the major radar networks are able to cover,” says Kyle Ryker, a Raspet research engineer who co-leads the effort with Madison Dixon, a UAS program manager. “We can fill in some of these gaps.”

The data includes ag aircrafts’ climb and descent rates, spray and cruise speeds and turning radii. Having a documented understanding of ag aviation operations allows for better training of UAS operators who fly in rural areas and are more likely to encounter ag aviators, Dixon says.

“Aerial applications are labor intensive,” says Andrew D. Moore, NAAA CEO. “Ag pilots are looking for ground-affixed obstacles and trying to ensure precise, targeted applications. Studies have shown it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for manned aircraft pilots to see UAS. The National Agricultural Aviation Association appreciates the MSU flight lab’s efforts to ensure the safety of manned agricultural aircraft as UAS traffic increases.”

Win-Win For Both Groups

“Our work involves normalization of the ag aviator dataset to make it compatible with existing airspace characterization tools,” Ryker says. “This will ensure full visibility and awareness of this unique segment of aviation operations.”

Technological advancements in agriculture and aviation since the Aug. 3, 1921, flight to dispatch sphinx moth caterpillars from a Catalpa tree crop in Troy, Ohio, are nearly unimaginable.

“Mississippi State is well positioned to help each of these sectors understand the needs and concerns of the other and to provide regulators with the necessary data to ensure both groups excel,” Brooks says.