The 26th Producer Information Exchange (PIE) program recently hosted a five-day tour for farmers from the Southeast—North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, George and Virginia—to visit farms and facilities in Texas.
Cotton farmers from the Southeast expressed amazement at the size of the Texas cotton sector and the way Texas farmers handle extreme weather conditions to grow a crop, reports Southwest Farm Press. The growers toured cotton operations and industries that support cotton production in both the Lubbock and Corpus Christi areas.
“We grow the same crop and have the same end goal in mind, but (I learned how) they approach things differently than I do in my region,” said Dean Hutto, PIE participant and cotton farmer from South Carolina. He said “(Texas) fields are bigger, have more equipment; gins are massive compared to back home and, even more so, they deal with weather issues and the lack of water.”
The annual PIE program allows growers from four regions of the U.S.—the Southeast, the Mid-South, the Southwest and the Far West—to visit other regions to gain the understanding and history of how other regions grow their crops, with hopes to bring that experience back to their region to share among other farmers.