Program Expands to Entomology

Sustainability Site Launched

Cotton Incorporated’s recently launched sustainability site http://cottontoday.cottoninc.com is a colorful, engaging and user-friendly exploration of ways in which technology and innovation are making the production and manufacturing of cotton more environmentally friendly.

“Our objective in redesigning this resource center and giving it a direct URL, is to provide easy access to the most recent, third-party validated data on the industry’s progress in sustainability,” explains Cotton Incorporated CEO Berrye Worsham.

Cotton Today is segmented into environmental topic areas such as soil, water, land, energy and habitat. Each section includes colorful graphics, media clips and citations for information sources. The redesign includes a homepage with footage of a cotton field in the breeze as a background. The homepage content can be hidden to appreciate the “view.”

Another highlight is the direct dialogue option, “Ask the Sustainability Desk,” through which visitors can submit questions directly to Cotton Incorporated scientists, who will then post replies.

The Cotton Incorporated Fellow’s (CIF) Program has been very successful in attracting, training and placing young scientists in cotton breeding related research positions. Because of that success, we are expanding the CIF Program to another important area of cotton research ― entomology.

I am very pleased to announce the newest Cotton Incorporated Fellow ― Jarrod T. Hardke. Jarrod is currently a candidate for his Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Entomology at Louisiana State University. He is studying cotton insect pest management under the direction of Dr. B. Rogers Leonard, Professor of Entomology and J. Hamilton, Regents Chair in Cotton Production, with the LSU AgCenter.

Jarrod’s dissertation research topic is related to management strategies for controlling the fall armyworm. He will be evaluating the efficacy of Bt cotton as well as conventional insecticides against the fall armyworm, while describing the symptoms of fall armyworm injury on both Bt and conventional varieties.

His work will become increasingly important as our industry nears elimination of single-gene Bt cotton and converts all Bt cotton acreage to multiple-gene technologies. Jarrod holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree with majors in Crop and Pest Management from the University of Arkansas. We welcome Jarrod to Cotton Incorporated.

FS MILLNET Advances in China

Over the past three years, Cotton Incorporated has provided an accelerated educational and training program teaching the advantages of using HVI data and the EFS MILLNet system for customers of U.S. cotton in mainland China.
Chinese mills had not been using HVI data to process cotton and suffered greatly from quality problems due to poor control of fiber properties used at the opening line. Cotton Incorporated targeted key companies in mainland China to educate their buyers and technicians on how to improve their cotton quality by using the EFS MILLNet software. In order to be an EFS MILLNet licensee, a mill must increase their use percentage of U.S. cotton.

As a result of the training program seven companies are now MILLNet licensees in mainland China. Included in this group is Weiqiao, one of the largest spinners in the world. Weiqiao, on average, consumes over 3.5 million bales of cotton yearly.

CIF attracts, trains and places cotton's best.