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WEST TEXAS cotton growers Mike Henson and Glenn Hogg have more in common than similar business operations. Both farm several thousand acres of cotton just outside of Lubbock. Both have commercial aerial applicator businesses in addition to their farming operations. But even more interesting is that both address a common problem for cotton producers with a fairly uncomplicated answer.
What's the problem? It's the triad conundrum of high inputs, low market prices and concern over natural resources. So what's the solution to a problem like that? It's really simple math - higher yields and better quality. How do you achieve that? With irrigation and cotton with great genetics.
Both West Texas growers rely primarily on FiberMax cotton to achieve the yields and quality they need. Henson said the price and quality keeps him in business, but the better yields also have an ancillary benefit - less environmental impact per bale of cotton.
"My granddad said if you take care of the land, the land will take care of you. And I have never forgotten that. So I have tried to be a good steward of the land, and over the last few years, we've learned to be good stewards with water. That's when we started with pivots, and trying to make those better and more efficient and economical - trying to produce more yield with a gallon of water," Henson said. "Now we are putting in more drip irrigation and we are cutting back on acres farmed, and getting more yield off of those acres that we are doing. So we are getting more yields off of fewer acres. And that brings me back to what my granddad taught me....